The Unexpected Alliance
by ToTeaOrNotToTea
Summary: The Avengers thought Loki was a tough adversary to beat.Turns out Coulson was right, there was a lack of conviction there. But he is far more convicted now and his aims coincide with theirs, he wants nothing other than the downfall of Doctor Doom and his new army of Super Soldiers. After their almost defeat at the hands of Doom, they might just be willing to take him up on his help
1. Prologue

**A/N: I've been obsessively reading fanfiction for ages but didn't get the courage to write one until now. Fingers crossed, hoping I've done a good enough job with this. **

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_Prologue_

Somewhere over the side of the building the sun was setting.

Tommy leaned against the crumbling façade of the abandoned warehouse. From there he could see his dorm building and remembered he had practicals tomorrow. No coke then, just a smoke for now. He took a long drag of the cigarette between his fingers, blowing the smoke away from him and closed his eyes, relaxed for the first time in days. The week of exams had taken its toll. The left side of his face glowed orange as the last bit of the sun's light fell over his skin and he edged away from it and hid behind a pillar with a hiss, suddenly unable to bear its heat.

Before he knew it, the sun had set.

Soon night had crawled over the city and in that quiet, dangerous part of town the shadows seemed longer and deeper. A single streetlight across from him was lit and it was the only light for miles, save for the red light at the end of his cancer stick. He pulled it out of his mouth and studied it carefully, laughing as he remembered the long lecture his dealer girlfriend gave him about the carcinogens in it. She was the one who supplied him with cocaine and complained about the smoke instead. He'd never understand women.

He looked at the graffiti laden shutters and smirked at the familiar sight, ugly words painted in stark white against the grimy covers that had more layers of paint on than most walls did. The smell of smoke combined with rotting garbage and he inhaled it all in. It had become familiar in the past few years, as much like home as the smell of his mom's moussaka had once been.

He took another puff of his nicotine, savouring it and was joined by someone else. He didn't even turn his head to see him, he was probably another soul lost in the city that Never Slept, dying for a smoke. There were many like them in the world. From the corner of his eye he saw the man in the hood take a lighter out, cigarette already in his mouth. He swore when it failed to catch spark and Tommy chuckled.

"Need a light?" He had the match out already, striking it against the rough brick at his back and held it out for the other man to take. The hooded man turned, face still shadowed and leaned forward to let Tommy light the cigarette up in an oddly intimate gesture.

The light of the match drew closer to the face and the shadows were suddenly gone. Tommy could see the face now and recognised it. The metallic cover with its seams glowing and his hand shook even as the fake mouth drew into a twisted parody of a smile.

"Thanks." The Doombot said and then Tommy's world went black.

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**Please leave a review! (Or don't, either way thanks for reading all the way through to the end)**


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: And the Avengers' crew finally make their appearance.**

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_Chapter 1_

It was a beautiful day. The sun was out, the birds on the other side of the soundproofed one way glass walls seemed to be chirping and as he walked down the hallways of the SHIELD Fury saw more than one smile on the SHIELD agents' faces.

Something was going to go terribly wrong, his gut told him and he frowned, terrifying the new recruit who handed him a file. The information, Fury noted flicking through a ridiculously sparse few pages with very little on them, was lacking and far too unimpressive. Since he had first become a part of SHIELD, Fury had come to expect big fat dossiers of information, not just a couple of paragraphs. Whatever Doom was doing he was playing his cards very close to heart. It was difficult to spy on him when the only 'people' he interacted with in his castle were only the Doombots. The last agent that had tried to infiltrate the Doomstadt had been sent back dead with a note pinned to his chest.

'Try harder.' It had read and left SHIELD at a dead end. The only person better at undercover missions was Romanoff and try as she might she wouldn't be able to pass for a Doombot. Stark had made a robot that was an exact copy of the Doombot but even that had failed. The tracker hadn't even placed it within a mile of Doom's castle in Latveria before it suddenly disappeared. A box of its gutted parts had been mailed to Stark's office a few hours later with another note on it, this one reading 'Try better.'

And now they had super soldiers to deal with. In the last battle Thor had thrown Mjolnir into one of them and while the soldier had been unable to pick it up again, he certainly hadn't seemed to be hurt by it. Even when Tony's blasters tore them apart they didn't scream, they didn't say a word, simply disintegrated into pieces that burnt to ashes in a horrific manner that left the bystanders in shock and left them with no organic matter to analyse.

He snapped the almost empty file shut with one hand and opened the door to his office, stopping abruptly.

Everything was as immaculate as he'd always left it, none of the sensors that littered the room, wired to go off if anyone other than him came close to them, had gone off and his pens, files and paperwork were on the right side just as he'd kept them for the past twenty years ever since he had lost his left eye to shrapnel.

So why was his chair turned completely around?

Silently he put the file away and drew his gun, just about to move to turn the chair when it swung around of its own accord.

"Director Fury, what a pleasure to see you again!"

"You sit like a whore."

Yes, the day had gotten very bad indeed.

* * *

"Please, sit."

"You're in my chair."

"I was going to wait in the other one but it was utterly uncomfortable. Although I suppose that was planned, you'd rather like it if someone entered your domain and wasn't completely at ease. It makes interrogating subordinates go so much faster." Not completely at ease like him, he meant and the vein in Fury's head throbbed. "And do put your gun down. We both know they don't do much to me, have you learnt nothing from last time?"

"Thor said you were dead."

"Thor was wrong. He often is you know. Or perhaps you _don't_ know." Loki, of all the supervillains in his world (and there were far too many, Fury decided) sat on the armchair pressing the pads of his fingers together and tapping them on his lip. "You'll learn."

"Why are you here?" Fury did not lower the gun.

"I have a proposition to make."

"SHIELD does not negotiate with terrorists."

"I suppose then that the World Security Council had nothing to do with you? Or was it someone else who ordered a nuclear strike on Manhattan." He waved it off just as soon as he said it. "Never mind, that's old business, not what I'm here to talk to you about."

"Then talk."

"I want to help you."

And his former words went through Fury's mind.

'_I come with glad tidings of a world made free'_

That guy never meant what he said.

"Help us?"

"As the file you were reading inevitably informed you Doctor Doom has been growing more and more daring in his ventures. The super soldiers nearly defeated your Avengers the last time did they not?"

"Get to the point."

"I want you to kill him. And I want to watch it happen. In return I shall help you with this endeavour since your own efforts have borne no fruit."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Why shouldn't you? Does it seem out of character to you? That I would strike up deals with anyone as long as I got my way in the end? I double crossed him to bring this information to you, the highest bidder so to speak. The bid I want, is him dead. Nothing more, nothing less." He snapped his fingers, conjuring a file and slid it across the table to Fury. "As a show of faith, all my information on the super soldiers."

With one hand still pointing the gun at him Fury opened up the file, his one eye nearly falling out of his head at the information in it.

"What is this?"

"When I first made Doom's acquaintance he was eager to show off his toys. Braggart really, it's quite pathetic." Loki ignored the blank look Fury shot him. "But in the process I caught the faces of a few of his super soldiers."

"These are students."

"Yes, all from NYU, they went missing over different periods of time all in early last year. Since then there have been a number of students reported missing. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to make to assume most of them were also taken to be involuntary subjects to his experiment."

"We can't know if it's involuntary." Far too many idiots in the world, Fury decided. And with Doom's dominant personality there were a host of passive sheep like people in the city that Doom wouldn't hesitate to manipulate and exploit for his own good.

"Of the five names here, only two have previous records mostly small misdemeanours like underage drinking, vandalism etc. One of them is a straight A student with a scholarship, the other a normal student who is currently working part time at a bakery and the third was a cheerleader. All of them living busy lives, none of them fit the profile of someone looking to be drugged up and join Doom's army. I looked into their movements there is no place where their paths might have crossed with a Doom supporters'. And just last month, another student went missing, Tommy Katsopolis. He was last seen outside the building from where his girlfriend deals cocaine."

"He's a cokehead?"

"Yes but his friends insist he wouldn't do drugs during exams. The police dismissed it since he's been reported missing four times in the last two years, and in all cases turned up a week or so later."

"You've gone through the police reports."

Loki blinked. "What makes you think that?" He said flatly but Fury ignored it in favour of the file in his hand. _This_ was the kind of information he had wanted on Doom and he finally had it, all thanks to the god who started it all, the first super villain in the history of Earth. Still, it had been a good four years since Loki had been seen terrorising people and in comparison to what they had been facing lately the alien attack on New York was almost paltry.

"You think you can help us get Doom?"

"Fury, I will not _stop_ until you do. Viktor and I have unfinished business." Something in his voice convinced Fury. There was anger and, oddly enough, grief in it and both of those were things Fury could use. He lowered the gun and sat down in the uncomfortable seat opposite his.

"You'll have to work with the Avengers on this."

Loki waved his hand, leaning back in _his_ chair (his chair, damn it!) "I have worked with lesser creatures."

"Right."

Loki smiled, slow and serpentine, sliding the metallic phone on Fury's desk closer to him.

"Make the call."

* * *

Tony paced the length of the Avengers tower living room. As he usually did when dealing with Fury, he felt an urge bubbling up in him and made a beeline for the bar. The bar that, as he soon realised, Pepper had all but emptied as part of her health kick. There was a single bottle of whiskey left and he got the feeling he would need it far more after he heard what Fury had to say and consequently left it there with a morose expression, turning instead to the fridge.

"Something's off." He told Bruce who was following his movements from the dining table. The rest were there as well but Clint and Natasha were prone to ignoring him when he began talking about Fury's weirdness and the Captain and Thor simply offered him empty platitudes. Only Bruce recognised his paranoia as valid and actually engaged in rational (no matter what anyone said, they really were completely rational) discussions about the same. "Fury never tells us to assemble in the tower."

"Tony's right you know." Bruce said to the table and although everyone was previously showing varying levels of disinterest they leaned in to listen to him. It was one of the perks of having a rage monster inside of you, Tony concluded. They all listened to Bruce but never him. Although that may also have something to do with the fact that he _always_ thought Fury was up to something. "He usually briefs us in the SHIELD headquarters and he didn't even tell us to suit up or anything, just that we needed to talk in Avengers tower."

"See, even Bruce agrees." Tony said, his face buried in the fridge rummaging for something to drink. He resurfaced with what he assumed to be a milkshake and took a long chug out of the glass. Upon tasting it his face turned green enough to give the Hulk a run for his money and he put it down again. He tasted green tea, soy milk and apricots and it was _hideous_.

"Maybe he's giving us permission to storm Doomstadt on the down low." Clint shrugged. "The World Security Council can't allow it because of Doom's diplomatic immunity so he's telling us here where they aren't watching."

"That surprisingly enough makes sense." Natasha said and Clint sulked at the casual nsult of his intelligence.

"Only it doesn't, Doom has the support of over twenty other nations and if we attack him on his home turf they'll be obliged to attack USA as part of the treaties they've signed." Replied Bruce astute as always.

"How can anybody still think Viktor isn't Doctor Doom?" Tony snorted.

"It's logical I guess." Steve postulated, their own personal ever neutral Switzerland. "I mean it's not like we have him on tape pulling his hood down to show the world it's him. Innocent until proven guilty. Without proof they can't rush into things especially when it concerns the Head of a State."

"You mean they don't want to. It's all politics, they just want the trade. Ugh, stupid super villain." Tony gagged, on both the thought of politics and the aftertaste of that disgusting concoction.

"We have to catch him in the act." Bruce added.

Before the discussion could be continued, JARVIS' voice filtered through the space, startling Thor who was still unused to the 'voice in the sky'. "Sir there's an unauthorized entity in the elevator with Director Fury."

"Don't let them up JARVIS."

"I'm afraid my security protocols are being over ridden again. Director Fury insists it is important."

"Guys?"

"We're ready."

Thor summoned Mjolnir, the Captain picked up his shield from where he'd left it on the couch and Natasha and Clint both armed themselves and they all turned to the elevator as the digits indicated on the panel grew higher and higher.

The doors opened but the 'unknown entity' was apparently leaning against the walls and hidden from their view. Fury stepped out first and immediately rolled his eye.

"Why the hell are you all standing like rabid guard dogs?"

"Hey Fury, who's your friend?"

The friend stepped out smoothing a hand over the black sweater he wore and tossed his short black hair back.

"The name's Loki, I believe we've met before."

A roar as Thor rushed forward was his only answer.

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**So whatever did you all think? Did I keep them in character or are they too OOC? Leave a note (Or don't, your choice)  
**


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: I didn't get this chapter done as quickly as I would have liked to. When I first started writing this, I had a plan. I had a bullet list of plot points and a series of prompts. Then the story said 'No, we're not doing that.' This story writing business is kind of scary.**

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_Chapter 2_

The Avengers owed a lot to Thor.

They had spent a lot of time together since Thor's return to Earth, or Midgard as he called it but before his arrival, they had been factions scattered and with nothing to connect them. Bruce and Tony were science bros, Steve has been adopted by Clint and Natasha and SHIELD and that was that. When they parted ways after Loki's defeat it had been definite. The superheroes initiative Fury had constructed was temporary in their minds, only to last until that very moment. Consequently, when Steve and Tony met accidentally at a fundraiser, they shared a nod of acknowledgement from across the room but didn't have anything to say to one another. When Bruce and Natasha ran across one another in Dhaka, she on a mission to stop a shipment of drugs while he was there to train people in basic medical care, they did their best to avoid any further interaction beyond recognition.

Thor's presence on Earth changed everything. SHIELD wanted eyes on him and so he moved to New York into the Avengers tower on Tony's advice along with Natasha and Clint. Jane and Darcy and Erik moved with him and they realised that Erik and Bruce had known each other before his gamma radiation accident and consequently their groups interacted more leading Thor to eventually request a fight with the Hulk.

When Bruce finally agreed, it was only if the rest of the Avengers were there to supervise and instead of the carefully observed match they had started with, it turned into a training session for everyone involved. Tony tested his improved blasters against Captain America's shield, Steve fought Thor in hand to hand combat, Natasha and Clint ganged up against the Hulk in a showdown of Strength vs. Stealth and the splintered group was amalgamated into a team once more. As if brought out of their grave by the stench of heroism, new villains rose and with each defeat the Avengers grew more fearsome in their reputations.

But it was what happened in between the fights and the battles, small moments of normality that brought them closer together. It started with Steve complaining about how things had changed since he had gone into the ice and instead of the 'You're old, grandpa' speech he expected, he got a commiserating talk from Tony who was beginning to feel a generational gap as well.

It had taken a long while but eventually it began to feel like they really were sharing their lives together and not just living spaces. They opened up learning things about each other that would have otherwise been buried. Tony willingly talked about the tortures in Afghanistan, Clint shared stories of the circus, Natasha's old days in the Red Room and even General Ross were touched upon, as were Steve's years spent being bullied.

And they also heard a lot of stories from Thor. Wonderful, complex and some fairly ridiculous stories about his many quests and adventures on Asgard, Alfheim, Nornheim and more places whose names they could not pronounce. These stories often featured his brother in an oddly brotherly capacity. It had been strange for them to hear tales of Loki in a role other than that of the Guy Who Tried To Take Over The World but after the twelfth time he saved Thor's life in story they began to accept that Loki hadn't always been so crazy. And it had also become very obvious with every new tale that for all that Thor was happy to be here with Jane Foster, with the Avengers, he missed his brother terribly, more so than he missed all of Asgard.

Consequently when Thor flew at Loki, more than one of those present wondered if he was going in for the kill or for a hug.

"Who are you and what are you doing wearing my brother's skin?!" He growled out, meaty hands wrapped around Loki's neck. It was only when Loki and Thor started fighting that the rest understood why Loki might have been considered frail and weak on Asgard like in the stories, something that had seemed silly to them before. Standing next to Thor his bones seemed infinitely delicate in comparison.

"I might be more inclined to answer if your hands weren't choking the life out of me you dolt." And Thor's grip loosened just a microscopic amount.

"Who are you?"

"Loki of Asgard."

"LIES!"

"Oh for the sake of the Norns, what will it take to convince you it's really me?" The Avengers were convinced that it really was Loki but Thor needed more persuasion and none of them were too opposed to Thor strangling the villain.

The fact was not only would nobody have anything to gain by coming into Avengers Tower disguised as Loki of all people, but there was also the fact that after hearing all those stories it seemed perfectly reasonable to them that Loki was still alive. Natasha had even gone to Jane Foster to confirm it but hadn't come out convinced of Loki's death. He had fallen into outer space and not died it didn't really seem like much of a stretch to think that he'd be alive even if he was run through by a sword. In comparison to the injuries he had picked up in the stories that seemed rather paltry in fact.

"Tell me something only Loki knows."

"That only I know, hmm? I had a brief liaison with Lady Sif when we were in our nine hundreds. She didn't take it well when I ended it, one of the many reasons why she would rather see my head on a pike."

"What?"

"You said something I know, not something you knew as well." Loki smiled, all teeth and sardonic amusement.

"You-"

"Yes yes, apparently you still need convincing, perhaps I could mention the time when you snuck into my room because you had nightmares of the Jotnar coming to steal you away? Maybe mention the time you kissed a beautiful lady on Alfheim only to find that she wasn't a lady at all, but a lord? Or the time you threw up on Odin's throne and –"

"Enough, I believe you, you're Loki." Thor let him up.

"Thank you." He said sarcastically while picking a long blonde hair off his sweater and making a face. Thor had however finally registered the fact that Loki was standing right in front of him and staring at him like he was a ghost, a shaky hand landing on his shoulder.

"You're Loki." He said and pulled him into an embrace.

"Get the oaf off me." Loki said disgruntled and the Captain went forward to separate the two, aided by Clint and Natasha who kept their gun and bow respectively pointed at Loki. Tony and Bruce stayed where they were unwilling to join the fray especially when Fury gave them the nod to stay where they were.

"He wasn't even this pissed off when you smashed him into the floor." Tony told Bruce who was going a bit green around the eyes simply at the sight of Loki.

"Not to interrupt but what the hell is he doing here?" Tony addressed his outrage at Fury.

"Do you really want to find out or would you rather shoot him?" Fury said, annoyed. IT sounded petty and rather diva-esque to say it but he was used to being the voice of authority. People answered to him and yet his repeated commands for Thor to let go of Loki had gone completely unheard like he wasn't even in the room. He usually had people court-martialled for such insubordination.

"I'd rather shoot him." Hawkeye said and the arrow he had pulled back flew but Loki caught it once again. Unlike the last time he threw it away before it could explode tilting his head at it when it didn't do so.

"Enough!" Fury shouted.

"With all due respect Sir-"

"Shut up Barton." Fury said annoyed. "Mr Odinson here-"

Loki flinched. "I go by Friggason now."

"Right. He's here to help us with Doom."

"Why? I thought you two would be best buddies. You're both harder to kill than cockroaches, you both like magic and the colour green. Oh and you want to take over the world too." Tony eyed Loki suspiciously.

"I think it's best if we sat down for this conversation. This is hardly civilised." Loki said eyeing Natasha's gun and Barton's bow with distaste. When they didn't budge a bit he rolled his eyes. "I can even sit next to Banner if it makes you feel better."

With a shared glance and then a look to Fury the two assassins finally lowered their weapons and they moved to the big table in the middle of the living room.

"You let me think you were dead for a year and a half." Said Thor, hurt permeating his voice.

"You have a tendency to assume the worst and then try to put me in prison. Seeing as how I value my freedom it's hardly surprising. Besides if it makes you feel any better I've only been on Midgard for the past twelve months."

From the curses Fury was spewing it seemed obvious that this was brand new information. On any other occasion it would have been almost amusing to hear such a high pitched squawk leave the Director of SHIELD but for the most part it wasn't.

Bruce stayed on edge, remembering that while the Hulk had been instrument al in defeating Loki, he had thrown him around a few times, quite angrily, smashing him into the floor and yet Loki had been able to stand in a matter of minutes. Tony fingered the bracelets on his wrist, glad he'd had the forethought of keeping a suit on hand. Clint and Natasha were both standing off the sides, ready with their guns on hand while Loki tossed a ginger snap he had snagged from the little tin of biscuits on the table in the air and caught it in his mouth. His ease here, in the home of his enemies was disturbing to say the least.

"You mean to tell me you've been on Earth for twelve months and none of our sensors caught you?"

"I'm certain your subordinates would have mentioned it by now if any of your sensors had 'caught me' but they clearly didn't. Not surprising, I did program them to forget me."

"You did what?"

"Come on Barton, even Thor understood that, I can't put that in terms any simpler than that."

"But you don't know technology."

"Technology, magic, it's just semantics."

"No it's not."

"Look do you want to find a way to defeat Doom or just stay here and talk about me?"

"What do you know about Doom?" Natasha interjected before Clint could answer him.

"He started the Super Soldier project little under a year ago. I wasn't there at the time but later on in my...travels, I came across him. He recognised me as the God of Tricks-"

"Or he recognised you as the man who tried to take over the world and failed."

Loki sighed, not even bothering to glare at Tony. "Either way he recognised me and offered an alliance. It was nice to meet someone who actually used magic, let alone believed in it so I took him up on the offer. We worked together for a few days before things went wrong."

"Went wrong?"

"You weren't wrong in thinking we'd get along." He addressed Tony before turning to the rest of the table. "We did, splendidly in fact. But then he tried to use his Super Soldier serum on me and that was the end of that association."

"He used it on you?" Everyone rose on their hackles turning to Bruce who instead of going green as they would have liked him to, was instead leaning in closer to Loki with an entirely professional approach. "You don't seem to be too affected by it."

"I said he tried, not that he succeeded, the needle didn't even pierce my skin. It was designed for use on humans not on me. It surprised him enough that I was able to disarm him, after which we got into a scuffle."

"Why you though?"

"Ah he wanted to see how it would affect a magic user, particularly given that the very serum is complex to say the least."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Loki made a motion as if pulling something out of air and opened up his palm to reveal a bubble with a golden tinge to it encasing a vial with a glowing green liquid sloshing around in it."I took this from him. It's the serum. Do you see how it's glowing?"

"A bit hard to miss." Tony said sarcastically but internally made a note of the apparent density of the liquid based on how it moved. "It looks like nuclear waste from a 90's cartoon show."

"Doom hadn't managed to stabilise the serum as such, so he infused it with his magic. Without it it tends to blow up which is what happens when you kill a soldier, without a living host for the magic to leach onto, it incinerates."

"So why isn't it doing that now?"

"Doom found a way of creating a material to withstand it." Loki closed his palm and the vial vanished.

"That's why there were so many explosions in Doomstadt a year ago." Fury noted.

"Yes. I have tried to understand and reverse engineer a cure for the serum but it is based in chemistry not alchemy. The principles of the two are too different and as such I am having no luck with it."

"So you want _us_ to help." Clint growled out but had a faintly smug expression on his face and Loki smiled wryly in answer.

"I've just managed to give you answers to questions you didn't even think to ask and you think _I'm_ the one who needs help?"

Bruce pushed away from the table and began pacing tapping the nails of his right hand into the palm of his other. "He's right; we didn't even have a starting point before now. But if it self-destructs we can't use any of the lab equipment to analyse it, we'll have to study the structure of the vial and recreate such a material before we can work on the serum."

"There's another problem." Fury added. "The soldiers he's using are students from NYU that were kidnapped and used in the experiments against their will. Loki identified two of them from back when he was still buddies with Doom and I've pulled up the files, the NYPD is looking into the disappearances of around thirty students in the last twelve months. Of those eight were found to have run away and two were found dead from a drug overdose. The rest are still missing and from what we can tell they're all part of Doom's army."

"What?" Tony said weakly. It was his blasters that had killed the one enhanced soldier and to find out that he was just a victim in this was a devastating blow.

It wasn't the first person he'd killed, especially in the middle of a fight but out of all the rest, Tony was the one person who tried to make sure that he had exhausted all other options before turning to killing. The Captain had lived through a war and while not fond of it he understood its necessity, the Hulk was fairly indiscriminate and uncaring of what happened to the people he fought even though Bruce later suffered from overwhelming paroxysms of guilt, Thor was from a warrior community and for the most part had to actively remind himself not to kill and Clint and Natasha had been assassins for too long to hesitate before taking the kill shot.

Tony though didn't like to kill. For him being Iron Man was more than just having an amazing suit that could save him, it was more than a weapon. It was him fulfilling his oath to Yinsen, it was his redemption for all the lives his former life as an indiscriminate weapons dealer had taken. It was him trying to be a good man and to know that he had killed an innocent who was caught in someone else's plan was something he wasn't equipped to handle, not when he still woke from nightmares of the battle with the Chitauri, not when he still wondered if there had been other prisoners like him in the village in Afghanistan that he'd destroyed in his zeal to escape.

"You couldn't have known Tony." Bruce said softly.

"I don't understand, is he feeling guilty about it? He didn't even know it was a student, besides wasn't that soldier threatening a child at the time?" Loki shook off the confusing thought, Tony's mental state meaning next to little to him. "That's not important now, what's done is done but we should keep a closer eye on the university."

"It's strange." Natasha said as she went over the file Fury had given her of the students who had gone missing. She had been reluctant to take it at first since it was clearly Loki's handiwork but she owed Fury that much at least and once she'd begun reading it she had been impressed with the amount of recon that had gone into it.

"They don't fit any specific profile or-"

Natasha shook her head, flipping through the file and making notes on the psychological profiles of the victims absently, a specialty of hers. It was a well filled out file and she could glean enough from it to know that there was little in common for all the victims. From the pictures in the file she read body language, physical cues and when combined with their backgrounds and movements prior to being abducted she could sketch a well enough picture to form a basic personality profile of the students.

"No, not that bit. This is Doom kidnapping students from the city that we operate from. So why hasn't he taken credit for it? Why let it slip under our radar when he could use it taunt us, to undermine us with our failure like he usually would? Doom can't help but show off, he likes mind games but he's too impatient with them, he likes to point out that he's manipulating you. The minute Tony killed the soldier he should have claimed responsibility for those kidnappings but he didn't." Tony flinched but Natasha didn't see it too focused on the file, eyes flicking over the words as she tried to figure out why such a shift in personality occurred. "Everyone on this list, they're all people who will be missed, whose absence is noticed."

"But not by us." Loki added.

"No, not by us. Not even by the police for that matter, they were spaced out too well and are too seemingly random for them to connect it and people disappear from campuses often, students drop out, they fall in with the wrong crowd, they get into drugs, alcohol or maybe they can't handle the pressure, whatever it is but their disappearances aren't always the priority for police."

"It's a message." Loki concluded, "Meant to scare someone or to catch their attention."

"And a message with a very specific aim as well but it isn't for us. So who _is_ it for?"

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**Leave a note!**


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: Warning, this chapter has a few spoilers for Thor: The Dark World.**

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_Chapter 3_

Steve, Natasha and Clint had a mission lined up for the next day that required them to fly out to Belarus, so reluctantly they left the others there. Despite the late hour the rest were wide awake, Tony particularly so but he was also feeling far too guilty to be a proper participant in their conversation and so Bruce walked him down to the labs so he could work out his frustration. Only Loki Thor and Fury remained, the latter arguing over Loki's domestic status.

"There's absolutely no reason for me to stay here at Avengers Tower, I have an apartment in the Village." Fury was rightfully annoyed. The alien who tried to take over the world had been living among them for a year and no one had noticed, he had an apartment in the Village, in the very same city where he had staged his battle, opened a portal and brought more aliens and yet none of their Intel indicated this. It was frustrating how much he managed to get away with; all with that arbitrary power he called Magic.

"Of course you do, but I need you here where I can contact you at all times."

"You mean where you can keep an eye on me at all times."Loki said shrewdly.

"That too. You're going to be working with all of them closely, Dr Banner and Stark need your help to get their equipment compatible with magic and Agent Romanoff needs to talk to you about Doom to update the psych profile we have on him."

"And you and I have unfinished business to discuss, Loki." Thor said, gravely.

"I don't think we do actually." Loki said, petulant.

"You said you've been on Midgard for twelve months."

"Yes."

Thor narrowed his eyes at Loki. "What were you doing before that? How did you escape Svartalfheim?"

"The Einherjar followed us there and found my 'body'. I simply took the place of one of them and went off to inform Odin of his beloved son's death."

"You served Asgard as a guard for six months?"

"No I served Asgard as _King_ for six months." His form rippled and in the blink of an eye Thor found himself looking at his father instead, in full armour and Gungnir in hand. "If I was proud of the man my son had become, even that I could not say. It would speak only from my heart."

The words, comforting as they had been coming from his father a year and a half ago made Thor blood boil and he shook with anger for a good few minutes before finally erupting. "LOKI!" He bellowed and Odin's form vanished to turn back into his brother.

"I know what my name is, you don't have to shout." He rolled his eyes unaffected by Thor's anger even as Fury stepped back, eyeing the two carefully. Thor summoned Mjolnir to his hand and Loki snapped his wrist as well. Fury put a hand to his gun expecting him to conjure a weapon. Instead, a can of Pepsi appeared in Loki's palm along with a huge pack of chips. "I apologise for my lack of manners but I'm feeling rather famished. Those ginger snaps did nothing to quell my hunger." He said while ripping open the packet and popping the tab of the can.

"You don't say." Fury said, dropping his hand from the gun, praying that Dr Banner and Stark would return soon. He wasn't sure how much more of this Hamlet like drama he could handle.

"And do put Mjolnir away Thor, it was all Odin's idea."

"What?" Thor and Fury said in unison.

* * *

"Forgive me my liege. I've returned from the Dark World with news." Odin barely looked up from where he was standing, still staring at the place where his throne had stood, quiet.

"Thor?"

"There was no sign of Thor, or the weapon but..." The Einherjar in his full regalia paused, stepping forward but Odin remained unmoved and impassive. He turned fully to look at the guard in the eye.

"What?"

"We found a body." He said and hung his head. Odin turned his good eye to the ground but raised it again.

"Loki."

"Yes my liege, I'm afraid the prisoner is dead."

"Drop the act. Do not forget that it was your mother who taught you to lie and she has never been able to lie to me. Loki Odinso-"

"I am _not_ Odinson!" The Einherjar said, eyes flashing with feeling unlike any of the soldiers had ever shown to the Allfather.

"But you _are_ Loki."

The Einherjar looked to the skies, rolling his eyes once before the illusion dropped and Loki stood before him again.

"Wonderful guesswork, Allfather. Still it is better to drop the guise, it makes killing you and taking your place so much more satisfying if I do it as myself."

"And still you want the throne." Odin sighed, sitting down upon the stairs leading to the throne instead of preparing himself for battle like Loki expected him to. Confused Loki circled him, tossing the knife up in the air like a toy, catching it again just as quickly, balancing the tip on his nail in an excellent display of dexterity, his nonchalance practised. Odin sighed. "One son who wants the throne too much and another who wants it too little. Very well then Loki, I shall make you a deal."

"A deal? The Allfather himself, making a deal with a prisoner? How strange."

"You will rule Asgard in my place." Odin said and the knife that had been balanced perfectly clattered to the ground.

"What?!"

"I offer you the throne, on a probationary basis of course, so that you may see firsthand what this golden seat has to offer you. I wager you shall not find it as satisfying as you think you would." Odin said.

"Ha ha, you've had your fun distracting the prisoner. I expect Heimdall crouching around the corner waiting to gut me." Loki said looking around carefully while keeping his focus on Odin all the same.

"You shall rule Asgard for six months. Six months, in which I shall stay away, giving you full power. Mind you though, as Heimdall has proven, his loyalty lies with Asgard not its King. If you do not do a good job then he shall stop you, even if you are in the guise of Odin. That much I trust."

"And what will _you_ be doing in these six months?" Loki asked, still suspicious.

"I do not know. But I will admit to being lost when it comes to traversing a world without Frigga in it. Perhaps I shall find a way to bring her back, I do not know." Odin stood up, came closer to him and Loki took a step back before mentally reprimanding himself to stand his ground. He stood, tall and proud, looking down at his 'father'

Odin smiled softly and swung Gungnir down holding it out to Loki with open palms. Hesitantly Loki reached for it. When Odin did nothing even as his right hand curled around the staff he took it and stepped back.

"Be a good King my son." Odin said reaching forward to pat him but taking his hand away when Loki flinched visibly.

"Careful there, wouldn't want the Jotunn to burn your hand." Loki said viciously and Odin smirked.

"Silly boy, I haven't been afraid of you since the moment I saw you in that temple."

"Ah yes, cast out onto a frozen rock. Such wonderful memories you invoke Allfather."

"Just Odin for now. You are King Loki, and you will find that the crown bears down heavier than you expect."

The sound of stomping feet snapped them out of their intense discourse and Odin disappeared while Loki transformed himself into Odin and sitting on the throne with aplomb. Sif, Volstagg and Fandral were brought in front of him in chains.

Loki was absolutely certain he was going to enjoy this very much. The six months would be far too short.

* * *

"As it turns out I was wrong. It was terrible. You had the right idea running off and leaving all responsibilities and duties behind you to shack up with your lady on Midgard. Pity it took me six months of ruling the Aesir to figure that one out." Loki shuddered. "How they ever manage to live so long with such little going on in their brains?"

"Father is ruling Asgard again?"

"Oh yes, he laughed rather hard when I practically ran out of there at the end of the half year, damn near throwing Gungnir at him."

"I cannot believe that he would simply hand over the throne to you."

"Neither did I, for the first few weeks I watched my back rather carefully waiting for his attack. And negotiating with the Jotnar wasn't exactly a walk in a garden either, if I ever go back to that frozen lump of a world it will be far too soon." Loki shuddered.

"Can we get back to Doom?" Fury said, annoyed.

"Can I not ask about the state of my homeland, Director Fury, without having you down my throat?" Thor growled out, having had too many revelations in the short span of the night to deal with.

"In Fury's defence, if you were really that concerned about your 'homeland' you could have stayed there and, oh I don't know, actually _ruled _the place."

"I would rather-"

"Be a good man than a great king, yes I know I heard you the first time." Loki rolled his eyes. "The last I checked Asgard was fine, reconstructions were coming along nicely and Heimdall was still talking about how beautiful the universe is while standing guard at his observatory."

"That is good." Thor said and a silence followed, broken only by the sounds of the chips crunching loudly.

Thor sat content to simply watch the brother he had thought dead eat, looking comfortable and oddly Midgardian and before long Stark and Banner reappeared, the former clutching a bottle of whiskey, drunk yet surprisingly coherent.

"Reindeer Games, we need to talk."

"Then talk."

"How do we stop the soldiers?"

"Well finding the cure might help." Loki drawled out but Bruce shook his head frowning.

"Not like that, in battle. We need to find a way to stop them without hurting them. I'm not sure any of us really can, now that we know they're just-"

"They're just kids!" Tony said waving his hands wildly, his eyes suspiciously shiny. "I can't go around hurting them if they're being used like that."

"They're pawns in someone else's game. I think we've all been in that place enough times to sympathise." Banner's eyes flicked to Fury whose jaw tightened.

"I could probably help you with that." Loki offered.

"How?" Bruce said, back to pacing the room, his mind filling up with all the possible outcomes of that. "I mean if Loki showed up and waved his magic stick it would pretty much cause more panic. Plus the WSC will start asking questions and-"

"No, not as Loki. Apart from the problems with your council if Doom finds out we've joined forces he might act out. A completely new player on the field will simply divert his attention a bit, he'll be curious to know who the new person is."

"So how do we do this?"

"I have another form that I can use." Loki said tentatively his eyes flicking between Thor and the rest. Only one of them truly knew what he meant and even then Thor had never truly seen his other form, simply heard of it.

"So? Let's see it."

Thor nodded in agreement and tiredly Loki sighed. A green light engulfed him and when it faded everyone was taken aback by it. He was blue with pale markings all over, bare-chested and in what seemed to be a fur cape and low slung leather pants. Grey horns curled out from the back of his head, half covered in the black hair and then there were the red glowing eyes.

"Dude, your brother's a Na'vi!" Tony said excitedly but Thor growled.

"My brother is not a Na'vi!" He paused. "What's a Na'vi?"

Loki answered him instead, staring at his hands, clenching and unclenching them steadily. "A fictional race of blue aliens, popularised by a movie called Avatar which was a blatant rip-off of Pocahontas."

"Why do you know that?" Bruce said. "Even I haven't seen Avatar, just heard about it."

"Caught a special screening of it in New York last year. Like I said, I got bored. The woman next to me was very enthusiastic about it and kept on explaining things about it to the people around her. Most found it annoying but I thought it was rather informative." He shrugged. "It's where I got the costume idea but a loin cloth is not that easy to manoeuvre in."

"So it's not usually so dramatic?"

"Just blue skin and red eyes."

"And the horns?"

"I missed my helmet."

"This might work." Fury eyed him carefully.

"No he still looks too much like himself." Tony noted. "If Doom's spent half as much time with him as he says, he'll know it's him."

"I can change it a bit." Loki offered.

"Show us." Instead of replying to Bruce Loki did as he asked. The dark brows turned into stony ridges in front of their eyes and the hair grew long until it reached the middle of his back falling in soft waves around him. The changes caused shadows to fall over his face creating angles that hadn't been there before.

"Better?"

"That'll work but I'm not sure how you can help stop the soldiers, even Thor has a tough time with them."

"The soldiers can't be stopped by sheer force, yes?"

"Even the Hulk has a tough time keeping up with them on just strength."

"I'm going to try freezing them."

"You can do that?"

"In this form I can. It'll be a long process though; you'll need to keep all but one busy so I can work on him. And prepare a subzero room in which we can keep him and maintain the cold."

"Already have a room like that." Tony waved his hands staring at Loki's new form in fascination.

"We do?"

"Yeah. I mean I use it to keep my ice cream but I guess I can cut down on it for a while."

"Does Pepper know about it?"

"No and she is not to find out. About any of this, especially about making a deal with the Na'vi."

"My brother is not a Na'vi." Thor said gruffly.

"I'm a Jotunn. A frost giant."

"Shouldn't you be more gigantic then?"

Loki shrugged. "I never said I was good at being a frost giant."

"Freezing them should work," Bruce said the only one who was still focused on the problem at hand although he wanted to study the changes in Loki's physiology as well. "It'll stop them moving and then we could ideally unfreeze them enough just to bring body functions to working status but still keep them slow enough to study them without the soldier trying to rip us apart."

"We can see the serum in action and study it." Tony concurred. "If we find out the mechanism of action it'll make it easier to find an antiserum."

"Yes exactly." Bruce said but his face fell soon. "Unless it bonds on a genetic level, we can't really come up with a way to reverse mutations without causing some heavy damage. I mean I haven't even found a way to get rid of the Hulk, not sure what help it can be."

"Well at the very least we can find a way to stabilise it without his magic which will free them form Doom's control." Loki assured them. "Although I still can't figure out why he's taking students from the University."

"Natasha said it was a message."

"But after a good year or so, whoever he's sending the message to should have gotten it."

"Would they? I mean we didn't even know that he was taking them until now."

"We need to keep an eye on the university." Fury said.

"Already on it, Jarvis is scanning every piece of data, video footage, audio, even the browser history of anybody linked to the place."

"Won't do much good, Doombots are linked to Doom, they have rudimentary magic as well. It's how they're hiding themselves and we all know hacking into systems isn't that difficult."

"We need to do something. Can't we release this information to the public?"

"And cause mass hysteria? I don't think so." Fury said sarcastically. "And say what? That the warning we're giving out is on the basis of information slipped to us by _Loki_? Unless we get concrete proof linking the disappearances to Doom we can't release this information."

"Let us hope then, that Doom stays quiet for a while." Said Thor ceremoniously and Tony flinched.

"Well you've jinxed it now."

* * *

In the streets of Latveria, the early morning market had just closed for the day. Hawkers were packing up their wares from the cobbled paths and as they passed by the toll booth they reluctantly handed over a share of their earnings, grumbling the whole way. A man who tried to get by the Doombots without paying the tax was being held up and shaken, an example made out of him. Any Latverian who chose to shirk their civic duties would be dealt with in the same hard manner and the complaints grew softer until they weren't to be heard at all.

The criminal's head was soon decorating the office. There was to be no leniency found in the fair and wondrous country of Latveria, built as it was on the sweat and blood of their leader's ancestors.

In a white marbled office in the top tower of Doomstadt, Victor Von Doom leaned back in his armchair, distressed. He watched his royal subjects go about their daily lives through the holes in his mask before sighing and taking it off, laying it on his lap while his cape fluttered over the back of the chair. A knock on the door sounded and in a flash the mask was back on his face and he turned the chair.

"Come in." The Doombot did exactly that and as always, pride bubbled up in Viktor when he saw his creation, in a perfect likeness if him. "Any luck?" Victor asked and his answer was found in the way the Doombot hung his head.

"No sir."

With a sigh Victor turned his chair around again. "I grow tired of this game of hide and seek. Perhaps the fire we have lit must be stoked then." He stood up striding out the room, the Doombot close behind him. "Find me more students. My Darling One must be flushed out no matter what. I cannot allow such leniency. We must advance with our plans in full haste. This is getting...dull."

"And the other sorcerer?"

"Loki, Loki, Loki. Why did he have to be so slippery? I had such plans." Victor held out his right hand looking at the golden ring he had acquired from the Asgardian before he escaped. "Never mind him now, he isn't important. Right now I need more subjects for my experiments." He said and turned the corner into his laboratory. His latest subject was just about to go through the final stage of his transformation and Doom insisted on being there for that. Soon he would have one more soldier to add to his cavalry.

Screams rang through the castle as the subject (Tommy, the tag on his toe read) arched off the table he was strapped to, veins bulging as his muscles swelled to twice their size, bones shifting in his face and torso to accompany the evolving nose, eyes and lungs. It wasn't soon before the screams were drowned out by the sound of Doom's laughter.

This was his favourite part.

* * *

**Leave a note!**


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N:A little slice of normality before the shit starts to hit the proverbial fan and a big thanks to marions, ImperfectIsPerfect and Inuhime1 for the lovely reviews, they made my week.**

* * *

_Chapter 4  
_

Loki, the God of Lies, Chaos etc had an apartment in the Village. It was five subway stops away from the one in Brooklyn where Steve used to stay.

It was hard to wrap his head around it. Harder still to wrap his head around the new avatar of the god that was currently next to him. It was still him but instead of the cheekbone length hair it was longer, pulled into a high bun and he sported a little goatee as well. Combined with the baggy pants and the threadbare long sleeve shirt with what looked like Sanskrit mantras printed on it, he looked incredibly artsy and not at all like the guy who's tried to take over the world.

It had been a unanimous decision that Thor and Steve would accompany (or 'safeguard' as Loki had called it) him to his apartment form where he was to pick up some things. It was him playing along with them that much was certain though. Loki had magicked himself in and out of so many places within the tower itself all while escaping Jarvis' watch, they had no doubt if he wanted to he would simply snap his fingers and bring all his luggage there to him. He was indulging their paranoia and Steve got the feeling he was laughing at them while doing it too.

It was a small building, red bricks with a fire escape running down the side and a charming tree in front that framed the doors.

"Come on, keep up." Loki said and hurried to cross the street, Thor following close behind him and Steve quickened his pace to keep up after the chirp of the car lock sounded. He was a bit struck by the normality of it all.

"I thought you'd choose some other place to live in a bit more..." Steve floundered for a good way of saying elitist and ostentatious.

(He had come to Earth in gold armour after all and Clint had often complained of how hard it had been finding fresh salmon while hiding in Germany in tunnels under the city.)

"Majestic." Thor finished for him.

"Yes well after Asgard everything seemed to be dull in comparison. Figured I might as well be a bit low key." He shrugged as they began their ascent to the second floor walk-up.

Steve must have been spending too much time with Tony, there was no other explanation for it. There was no reason why the thought of Loki being low-key should make him want to laugh.

"Hey Luke." A pretty woman said while struggling with grocery bags and her keys. Before Steve could offer to help her Loki or 'Luke' was already there taking bags out of her hands without even asking."Thanks." She said in a slightly accented voice, a little girl peeping out from behind her. When she saw them she brightened and practically ran out from behind her mother and for a moment Steve and Thor flinched certain they had been recognised. There had been many times when the adults in the room had failed to recognise them but the children had.

She ignored them though and tugged at Loki's shirt

"Lukie!" The little girl said brightly ignoring them completely.

"Hello nibblet." 'Lukie' said sweetly and even with his arms full of the other woman's groceries he bent to look her in the eye.

"Who're they?" she asked him looking at them with a pout and a frown and Steve bent to her level and smiled.

"HI I'm Steve."

"And I am Th-"

"That's Theodore." Loki finished for him smoothly and Thor realised he had almost given his name and looked to the ground, abashed. "He and Steve are helping me move my things."

"You're leaving?!"

"Seriously?" The woman said, just as aghast as the little girl stopping in the process of opening the door.

"For a bit at least. It's complicated, what with work and family issues. I'm just moving downtown to their place but my workload's gotten shi-, terribly harder." He watched his language around the little girl and Steve was almost impressed until he relaised it was all a lie and even that little slip up had been calculated.

"But my birthday's coming up."

"I know darling, I hate that I'll miss it too." He turned his eye sot the woman. "The thing with the super soldiers is making the folks back home antsy, they've been pressurising me to come back home again."

"Oh yeah, it's gotten bad. Did you see the new protests boards that have gone up?"

"Yeah it's just-" He made a sound and a motion as if his mind had blown up. Loki was incredibly colloquial. Steve was still struggling and Thor found their customs fascinating but in an amused way and neither were as comfortable in their skin as he was. Of course it was all still a lie. Natasha said it was often so that her cover identities came to her much more easily than her real one did. Perhaps it was like that for Loki as well, perhaps he was just very good at acting.

For a good few moments the two discussed current events and even restaurants before the little girl demanded his attention.

"Do you really have to go?"

"Sorry love. I'll try to visit though and I'm still making my rent payments in case I decide to move back but for now I'm staying away." When the door finally opened the little girl pouted and stomped in leaving her mother there in the hall. "That did not go well."

"Well she did just find out her future husband is leaving her with the evil parents."

"What?" Thor asked.

"My little Megan wants to marry our dear Luke here."

Megan came running out of the house with a paper in hand. "Here, I drew a picture of you and me."

"Aww that's lovely."

"But I haven't finished colouring it so you'll have to come back." She pouted.

"I will." Luke promised her and then finally they parted but not before Megan kissed his cheek and ran away blushing.

"So that was...interesting." Steve said still trying to wrap his head around what he'd seen.

"I'm sure you get children running up to you when you're dressed as Captain America too."

"Yes but I'm a-I mean they think I'm a hero."

"So does Megan, a stray dog almost bit her and I stopped it." As he opened the door he grinned mischievously. "Even a villain can be someone's hero."

When they entered the apartment it was empty. The furniture was bare as were the shelves. There was no sign of anyone having lived there except for the boxes that were lying in the rooms labelled and ready to be transported.

"Loki." Thor chided.

"Did you really expect me to pack by hand? I may look like a Midgardian but I am not really one." Loki scoffed and handed two boxes to Thor. "Take these downstairs."

"And what about you?"

"I have to check on a few things and you can't possibly let me be here all alone with civilians around." He said mockingly and Thor took the boxes as asked.

Steve was surprised when Loki began talking to him.

"Has Fury talked to you about how you plan on keeping an eye on the university?"

"Not yet. At first we thought of sending Clint and Natasha undercover as students but SHIELD would start asking questions if they're not available for missions. Tony's too recognisable and Bruce still has issues with the outside world. It'll probably end up being me enrolling; I can always say I wanted to learn to fit in better in this century."

"Do you use that excuse often?"

"It's not exactly an excuse."

"It took me all of four months to adjust without any help, you've had a good few years."

"The problem is things are kind of familiar but not really. You have no basis to compare it with, it's a different world entirely. That's not the same for me."

"True, I imagine Thor will get quite a nasty surprise when he sees all the changes that have happened to Asgard in the last year."

"You shouldn't be so mean to him."

"He's my brother, it's my duty to be mean to him, if I don't who will?"

It took a while for Steve to realise that this was all good natured teasing. When Loki and Thor were on opposite sides, they were ugly jabs and snarls but when they worked together those same words were less hurtful taunts and more playful banter with a bite.

"Why are you so okay with all this?" Loki was comfortable. He was comfortable working with people who had defeated him, he was comfortable working with Natasha who had manipulated him, comfortable with Clint who had shot an exploding arrow at him, with Bruce who had in his Hulked out stage thrown him across the room, pummelled him into the floor. All of them though, they were on edge. If anything it should have been the other way round especially since they had thoroughly defeated them, they had reduced his army to nothing.

Loki shrugged. "I wasn't that fond of either the Chitauri or Midgard. Realistically I would have won either way. You destroyed the Chitauri and that wasn't much of a loss but ruling Midgard wasn't exactly what I wanted either. Asgard was what I really wanted."

"You didn't even want to rule Earth?"

"I thought of it as a stepping stone, nothing else. My whole life I had wanted nothing more than to rule Asgard, I wanted the throne and I worked hard to prove myself worthy of it. And yet Thor who didn't care a whit for it, who has offended a million dignitaries, who doesn't understand the nuances of politics was to be given it for no reason other than the fact that he was Odin's favourite." For a moment he saw the same flash of anger that they had seen when he'd tried to take over the world. It reminded Steve that while he didn't look like that guy anymore, he had indeed _tried to take over the world_. But then Loki relaxed and shrugged. "I got it in the end though. Part of me feels it a bit unfair that after all I did Odin just gave it to me so easily but there it is. I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Of course then I went on to realise that I didn't even want it which was... not fun."

"You don't say?"

"Oh but I do." He relied silkily. "If you're going to enrol in the college you'll need to be a bit more at ease." Loki looked Steve over carefully.

"I can just pretend to be a country boy getting used to the big city."

"No you can't it would slow down the process, we need someone to fit in quickly and get networking."

"I know someone who can help me learn how to fit in." He thought of Jane Foster's assistant. She had eyed his butt constantly but she had an ease with words that had left even Tony flabbergasted so she seemed the best option really, especially since she was recently a university student.

* * *

"You want me to help you be a normal student at NYU?" Darcy said with her slumberous eyes. Steve often felt uncomfortable when she looked at him like that and she always looked at him like that.

"Yes."

"So my idea of normal then?"

Steve was beginning to regret this. "Yes."

"So that's everything from study habits to fun habits."

"Yes."

A slow smile grew on her face.

"Well then let's start with the stupid stuff."

Over the course of the next hour Steve's eyes grew wider and wider until finally he picked up his StarkPhone and called Fury.

"I can't do this, I can't go to college." He said succinctly and all but ran out of there. He was fairly certain Darcy stared at his butt as it walked away.

* * *

Today was a good day.

It wasn't particularly sunny, in fact it was almost ridiculously cloudy and there was a hard cold wind blowing but today Stacey was happy. After a year of walking miles across campus and then having to climb up seven flights of stairs, there was finally an opening in her dorm and her boyfriend was moving in. He still had to room on the opposite side of the building but still, anything was better than 'The Hike' as she had taken to calling the journey from her building to his.

So today she would happily climb up the seven flights of stairs to get to him and help him move.

Or so she thought. By the time she had reached the fourth floor she was panting heavily and taking a break, sitting with her head braced against the stairwell. It was in this form that Rachel, the floor supervisor for Gary's floor found her.

"Are you alright?"

"I am so happy that I won't have to do this anymore!" She said in between heavy breaths cringing on the inside as her hair felt damp and curled at the nape foe hr neck. She'd just gotten her hair blown out yesterday.

"Oh yeah Gary's moving to your building right?" Finally Stacey stood up and restarted her climb walking alongside Rachel who had slowed down considerably to allow her to catch her breath. Considering that the girl usually moved like a hurricane, a quiet small hurricane but still a hurricane, that was nice of her. Still she was generally nice, Rachel. Most of the time Stacey just wanted to gift her cartons of hair dye and get her to ditch the black frames but she didn't think the girl would be too happy about it. It was almost like she _liked_ being mousy.

"Yes, finally, I have been waiting for this day for too long."

"I didn't think Kincaid Hall had any empty rooms."

"They don't but one of the students disappeared and it's been long enough that the room's up for grabs."

Rachel paused in her step. "Disappeared?"

"Yeah that Tommy kid you know? His girlfriend had the good coke too. They say he's disappeared but he's probably taken off again."

"So he disappeared?"

"Yeah like poof, just in the middle of exams."

"Wow so he must be what, the fifteenth student who's just poofed in the last few months?"

"Well yeah I guess." Now that she thought about it, a lot of students had been gone in mysterious circumstances all year long. One of them had been in her German Literature class too. Maybe there was something connecting them. Probably not though. "The police don't think anything weird is going on so whatever. As long as it gets Gary a room at Kincaid Hall I don't care." She shrugged.

"I hear there're some students missing in Columbia too."

"I _hate_ Columbia."

It had nothing to do with the fact that she had applied to it and gotten rejected. Nothing at all.

"I hope the students' disappearance isn't something serious." Rachel said softly before shrugging. "Oh well, see you around campus." She waved and went off to her room while Stacey made her way to the other end where Gary's boxes were already piled up outside.

"Oh good you're here," He said absently. She would have hugged him but there was a giant sweat stain going down the back of his hoodie. "We'll have to make two trips to get all this stuff down but Mike's getting his car so at least we won't have to walk with them across campus."

Stacey groaned at the thought of climbing up the stairs one more time.

"Do we have to?"

"You were the one who wanted me to move closer, I was fine here."

"Only because don't look like a sweaty pig after climbing two flights of stairs."

"I didn't anyone could but you've always proven me wrong. Now come on let's get cracking. The sooner we get this done with the sooner we can start unpacking."

"Fiine." She whined but picked up her share of the boxes anyway. It was only at her insistence that he'd moved so it was fair that she helped out. She passed by a group in the lobby and overheard the end of their conversation.

"-Not since Sam disappeared."

Sam, if she remembered correctly, was one of the Chess club kids. He always had a man purse slung around his neck, she had often wondered if it itched and her mind went back to the conversation with Rachel.

What if the kids who had disappeared hadn't run away? What if they were taken? There were plenty of conspiracy theories flying around school already (along with a few speculating if Professor Garrison was a cyborg sent back to the past to destroy Sarah Connor) and none of them had reached the ears of any officials but even if they did she wondered if anyone would take it seriously. It was doubtful.

"Come on," Gary said slinging his arm around her and for once she didn't react too much to him putting a sweaty arm around her. "Just one more climb and we're done."

There was a pool going on amongst some students as to who would be next to be taken. She just hoped it wouldn't be Gary.

* * *

**Leave a note!**


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: Greetings to the lovely readers, I hope that if you're having a bad day this update might cheer you up and if your day's been excellent then I hope it doesn't leave a bad taste in your mouth! And a salute to the amazing reviewers, thank you very, very much Inuhime1, agog, thephoenixandthedragon4ever and of course, marions. You're all so **_**awesome**_**.**

* * *

_Chapter 5  
_

Emilia gritted her teeth hard as the grumbling sound began in the sky. She'd never been fond of thunderstorms even as a child they'd terrified her. It was to be expected she supposed, hearing a hurricane overhead rocking through the house while she was hiding in the underground storm shelter with her parents and grandmother the sound of it left her in shock.

Another deafening sound rocked through the air and she nearly dove under the library table. From the corner of her eye she could see the sky lit up by lightning and expected in the next few seconds that even more thunder would make itself heard. The rain lashed against the window, the pitter-patter of it driving her nuts.

This was exactly why she hated New York.

She had been so excited to move here a few years ago, even with the high crime rates and the ridiculously expensive living and then Iron Man happened and then the aliens came and the Avengers stopped them and things just got worse from then on.

Thor may be the favourite Avenger amongst the rest of the students (there was a pool going on about how much beer he could pack away before passing out) but Emilia hated that guy with a vengeance. Every single time he popped in from somewhere with his magical hammer it rained, when some Avenger got injured in battle it rained every single time anything happened he made it rain and not just a slight drizzle either but proper thunderstorms too.

The phone rang distracting her and she was glad, both for the distraction and the outlet for her anger it provided.

"You're late."

"I know, I missed my train on my way there."

"How long is this going to take, we have a deadline on this project you know." She griped.

"Yeah yeah, we've still got a week to go, now why don't you pop in your earphones and chill, I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Fine."

She slammed her mobile on the table viciously and a student on the nearby table glared at her. She ignored it, finding it hard to believe that it hadn't occurred to herself to stick ear buds in. Josh wasn't the brightest tool in the shed but he had an amazing amount of common sense.

With the jazzy playing she lost track of time, when the minutes turned into hours she didn't even notice. When she finally realised it had been an entire hour since Josh had called she frowned. The storm had stopped entirely by now she rolled her eyes angrily before hitting the redial button only to frown as the default busy message played instead.

"The Aesir subscriber you're trying to reach is currently switched off, please try again later."

She waited another few minutes before trying again but got the same message and called up Josh's roommate to check with him instead only to find that he was having trouble looking Josh up too.

Between the two, they called dozens of people, all swearing that they'd just seen Josh little under half an hour ago, walking up to the library but no one had actually seen him enter.

A year ago people would have left it at that, not bothering to look into it any further. It was just Josh after all he had this tendency to get distracted by the smallest of things and it wasn't unlike him to blow off an assignment here or there. Sure he never did so when working on a group project but there was a first for everything right?

But it wasn't a year ago. It was right now, when only two weeks ago Tommy had gone missing, when Sam had disappeared two months ago and before him more. So instead of just taking it as Josh blowing off some steam by disappearing they called the police and filed a complaint. They wouldn't be able to look into it until more than twenty four hours had lapsed but it eased their state of mind a bit.

By night fall it was all over the campus. Josh Radison was the latest one to disappear.

* * *

"It makes perfect sense!"

"I am not sending you undercover to university to spy on children!"

"Oh for Valhalla's sake Fury, I'm more than a thousand years old, you're all children to me!"

"It must be nice for you, not to be the oldest thing in the room all the time." Tony flashed a grin to Steve who simply rolled his eyes, without even looking up from the newspaper he was reading.

"You do realise that Thor is his older brother." The blonde said and Thor turned his head away from his brother and Fury at the mention of his name.

"Did you say something?"

"Hey Thor buddy, how old are you?"

"I am thirteen centuries old, Man of Iron."

"And Loki?"

"He is a century younger, why?"

"Just wondering."

Steve tried to focus on the paper but Loki and Fury had devolved to yelling and it made it hard for him to concentrate. Thor on the other hand was getting excited as if he was watching a tavern brawl. Tony was certain he was just about to tell Loki to smash a chair over fury's head.

"So," Steve said in his Captain America voice, "How's the work on the freeze ray going?"

"Not so well, we can't find a way to rapidly freeze a person from a long distance without killing them."

He began talking in big terms that Steve couldn't quite understand and the blonde's eyes glassed over.

"-and you aren't listening to a word I'm saying are you?" Tony said exasperated.

"Listening, just not understanding."

Tony sighed. "Basically, we can't figure out a way to bring down the temperature down quickly enough to be of actual help in battle but slow enough that it doesn't end up killing the kid in the Super Soldier outfit."

"But Loki can."

"Oh he's a regular Queen Elsa."

"Who?"

"Queen Elsa? From Frozen. We watched it just a few weeks ago, remember?" Steve simply got more and more confused and Tony huffed clearing his voice and began singing in a clear high pitched tone. "Let it go, let it go, can't hold it back anymore."

The fight had stopped. Loki and Fury were looking at Tony with revulsion while Steve grinned like the cat that got the cream.

"You knew all along didn't you? You just wanted to hear me sing." Tony said flatly and Steve shot him his most innocent look.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You spend too much time with Natasha."

"Did you trick him into humiliating himself?" Loki asked Steve.

"I can neither deny nor confirm that statement."

"I'm impressed. Perhaps you can handle college after all."

"NO!" Steve cried out before clearing his throat and settling back in his seat. "I mean, no."

Tony snorted. "What exactly happened with Darcy anyway?"

"She told me stories of her days at college and then showed me this website." Steve shuddered.

"What website?" Tony leaned forward, interested.

"I don't know, it contained texts sent form people after their...adventures and it was colourful to say the least. I can't behave like that, in such a debauched, loose fashion. I refuse to."

"Well then it should be me going. I already have another identity that ahs fooled plenty of people, I can just use Luke and go to college. It'll be better that way since I have a sensitivity to magic which means if a Doombot appears on campus I'd feel it immediately."

"You're a threat." Fury said

"Everyone in the room is a threat, you work for an organisation that was infiltrated by spies and took the whole of last year to get back on its feet."

"It's true." Tony said and Fury glared at him.

"Be that as it may I'm not sending him out there alone."

"Sir, there's something you should see." Jarvis said and a hologram projected itself out of the walls. It was the id of a student and his information along with a transcript of an emergency call to the police about him having gone missing from NYU an hour ago.

"Damn it."

"He's escalating. Two kidnappings in a span of two weeks." Loki said and turned to Fury. "With or without your permission I'm going there."

"Thor will go with you, we'll call it him experiencing a normal student life for the Council's sake."

Tony snorted. "They won't let him do it without a babysitter and we both know who that babysitter's going to be."

Thor was already on his phone. "Jane Foster, would you please come to the Avengers tower? And bring Darcy along with you."

Steve groaned. "Why Darcy?"

"To help me learn of course." Thor said even as the mischievous glint in his eyes said otherwise.

* * *

Loki rolled his eyes as Jane Foster fondled his face, pulling the flesh of his cheeks this way and that. One hour in and she still couldn't bring herself to believe that he was real.

"Wow SHIELD must have some really cool technology. I mean he looks just like the real one!"

"I _am_ the real one."

"Yeah right, come on." She scoffed. "You got a sword through your chest, I saw it come out the other side and you turned all grey and stuff. Even if it missed anything vital the spinal injuries alone should have at least had you bedridden if not dead."

"I'm not dead." Loki reiterated.

"That's exactly what a Loki copy would say."

"Jane, it really is him." Thor asserted.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because he knows things that no one else would know."

"Yeah right."

Loki sighed but then brightened up considerably. "It's for the best, you probably wouldn't believe the things I know about him anyway. I don't suppose you want to hear of the orgies that Thor-"

"He's not real, he's one of those Artificial Intelligence things." Thor said quickly slapping a hand over Loki's mouth.

"Oh my God it _is_ you!"

"_That_ convinced you?",said Tony, incredulous.

"Come on, SHIELD teaming up with Loki whom they think is dead because he has some weird connection to Doctor Doom? That's not believable. On the other hand, Thor trying to shut him up, that is."

"Thor you never said your brother was so cute." Darcy looked Loki up and down and Steve found himself almost annoyed at being replaced so easily.

"Darcy he tried to take over the world."

She shrugged in response. "I dated a Hell's Angel once."

"Ladies," Fury said with a thin smile. "If we're done with the chit chat."

"I'm not done with the chit chat."

Fury growled at Darcy who was unaffected. "I don't care, we're on a schedule here, Stark bring them up to speed."

It took the better half of two hours to explain everything but finally they were both on track.

"So that's why Stevie wanted to go to college." Darcy said.

"I don't understand," Jane said confused. "What do you need us for? And why aren't you telling the council about this?"

"To help Thor and Loki assimilate into college."

"I don't really need the help but Thor might. And the Council would be more interested in testing out the serum to create more super soldiers, only ones that they could use." Loki explained.

"It's like when you don't tell anyone about your research so that SHIELD doesn't Area 51 it." Darcy said. "Well that and to maintain some leverage over them, if they give them all the information at once the Council starts asking where they got it from. If they find out Loki's here that would be very bad, especially for you and Thor."

"Why is it bad for me and Thor?" Jane asked. Thor had saved the world and helped the avengers defeat Loki the Council should just have been grateful in her opinion.

"Well the only reason they think Loki's dead is because you two said so. They don't have anyone else's word on that and they don't exactly like the fact that Thor has diplomatic immunity because he's a Prince either. Or so I'm guessing." Darcy turned to Fury who nodded. "Right, so any chance at stripping him of that immunity and studying him more closely than he wants to breaking a few laws of ethics in the way becomes easier once they have the reasoning of 'He lied to protect Loki'. Not that there are any I mean, there's no real legislation protecting Aliens from outer space anyway."

"How do you know all this?" Jane asked Darcy, momentarily in awe.

"I may not get any of your astrophysics junk but I do have a degree in Political Science. Thor is like the most hated person by any government, he has no papers, no jurisdiction governs him. Hell he committed treason in his own world and got away with it."

"Only because Loki was acting as King." Thor protested.

Darcy choked on her breath and turned to the dark haired God in shock."Seriously?"

"Yes."

"Awesome, you mind talking about it later? I've never actually had a conversation with a head of state before."

"Why not." Loki acquiesced.

"I'm sorry Director Fury but I'm not exactly the best person to help Thor with this. I went to Culver University, it's not exactly party central, we spent most of our time doing research. I mean if Thor's stories about Asgard's feasts and stuff are real then he'll fit in better with frat boys than I will." Even as the words left her mouth Jane cringed.

"You just called your boyfriend a frat boy." Darcy teased and laughed.

"I don't understand, is that an insult?" Thor looked around confused.

"You'll get to decide all for yourself."

"So we're doing it then?"

"Yeah why not, I miss doing kegger stands." Darcy said but Jane hesitated.

Thor took her hand in his and looked her in the eyes, leaning in closer. "Jane I need you for this."

"Oh what the hell, it might be fun!" She said and Darcy whooped.

Fury slammed a hand down on the table hard. "This isn't supposed to be fun, it's supposed to be an investigation."

"And undercover investigation which means we'll be having fun or at least pretending to so that we fit in." Loki said smoothly. "Course there's still the matter of disguising Thor, I can't maintain a Glamour on him for a long period of time, it'll be too draining and I already have to maintain mine while keeping feelers out for the Doombots."

"You don't need magic, we just get Thor all clean shaven and bleach his hair a bit, pull it into a man pony. He'll look like a hot surfer dude, easy peasy."

As Thor protested, unwilling to shave his beard off 'It is a symbol of my manliness' and Jane continued to poke at Loki every few seconds still unable to believe he survived Steve and Tony sat back and watched the chaos.

"We're sending two Norse Gods to college." Tony said.

"To investigate a series of disappearances conducted by a sorcerer who doubles as the Autocratic Monarch of a country."

"That list of things I thought I'd never say but say anyway just keeps growing longer."

"Tell me about it."

* * *

**And yet another seemingly filler chapter. I have the college bit all mapped out but getting them to that point while tying up all the loose ends took some time. I needed it to make sense in my head at least, if not to everyone else, I'm sure there're still some loopholes in rationalising it all that I haven't even noticed so if you see any gaping holes of logic feel free to point them out.**

**Leave a note!**


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N:Salutations my dearest readers, how fareth thou this morn? Or night if it's night where you are, or afternoon, or dusk or whatever. Veering off topic though. Anywho, thanks to Marions, Agog,thephoenixandthedragon4ever and ImperfectIsPerfect for reviewing, you all make me believe in unicorns!**

* * *

_Chapter 6_

Jane was terrified. As in full blown panic attack in the car with Darcy rubbing circles on her back while she breathed in and out of a paper bag kind of terrified. This was NYU. Somebody on a skateboard had just passed by their car, a boy with pants hanging fairly low had walked past them, there was even a girl with purple dreadlocks.

She was a nerd. And not just a Doctor Who fan kind of nerd but a proper, 'My one true love is Science' kind of nerd. She missed Culver with its shiny white floors and smell of antiseptic, students conducting experiments with liquid nitrogen and conducting spectral analysis to find out what really made Twinkies so delicious.

This was way out of her league. She didn't even own an iPod for heaven's sake!

Finally Darcy kicked her out, fed up with her attitude and she collected her ID and with a shaky breath entered the lobby of Spooner Hall and was greeted by a smile from a girl who was standing there as if waiting for her.

"Hi, you must be Jane Foster." She said. She had a small nose, lots of freckles dusted all over her nose and cheeks and serious brown eyes a bit darker than her hair. "I'm Rachel Brown, your new roommate and the supervisor for the seventh floor."

Jane stared for a moment, still reeling at the thought of having to share a room with a kid before catching herself. She shifted the duffel to her left hand reached forward. "Oh it's nice to meet you. I'm Jane but you already know that."

"I was about to show you to the rooms but there's another two student who're also rooming on the same floor and they're moving in today as well, do you mind waiting for them? You could go up yourself and start unpacking if you want, I'll get you as soon as the other students arrive."

"Oh no, it's fine I don't mind waiting. Who are the other -"

"Oh one of them is here," Rachel moved forward and Jane turned as well only to reel. "You must be Luke Houten."

Loki smirked. "Well I don't know if I _must_ be but yes." He turned to her with a snide smile. "Hello Jane."

"You two know each other?"

"Jane is dating my brother who will be joining us in a few minutes."

"Theodore Selvig is your brother? You have different surnames so I didn't guess that. And you all transferred to NYU?"

Jane smiled nervously. She hadn't thought about what she was supposed to say to that but Loki answered for her.

"Theodore followed me here and Jane followed him. It's a rather annoying tale, very Shakespearean and I'd rather not get into it right now."

"Okay then, is Theodore joining us any time soon?"

"I'm here!" Thor said, carrying five bags with him and not even sweating the slightest. "Jane!"

"Hey ...Theodore." She said stiffly, not used to the fake name and Loki stifled a laugh.

"So everyone's here? On behalf of New York University, welcome. You all have your student ids and you'll be living here at Spooner Hall on the seventh floor where I'm the floor supervisor." She turned firstly to Thor and Loki. "Your room is in the west wing. This is a co-ed Residence Hall but girls and boys don't share rooms. If you bring anyone to the rooms then you have to sign them into the ledger at the front desk but we do give parents and guardians guest badges if requested so they don't have to sign in every time."

She went through all the rules and started on pointing out all exits and emergency exits before they finally started moving up the stairs and Jane sighed in relief.

When Tony had told her she'd have to share a room with someone, she'd been terrified, wondering if it would be someone like Darcy or worse. Jane loved Darcy like her little sister but she was a lot to take in at work and even more to take in when in close quarters. Living with her in that small trailer back in Puente Antiguo had been hard enough but here Darcy would have been in her element and that would have been utterly terrifying. Consequently Jane was glad she was rooming with Rachel. She was plain and seemed to be very strict about the rules but her neatness was comforting to Jane.

So Jane calmed down and unpacked her things. And then she went to Thor's room and made out with him while Loki shook his head in disgust and finally left the room.

* * *

Loki ran out of there as soon as the strange noises that sounded like the noises the plumbing in his old apartment made when it was blocked, began. Not that either one of them was particularly to his tastes, Thor too golden and Jane too blah for him to care about their activities. It was only fun watching people engage in relations if you were attracted to either one involved after all.

Besides, he wasn't there to have fun. He was here to find out what was it about these students that attracted the attention of Doom. Just thinking of the sorcerer made his see red and he clenched his fists trying to control his anger. His thumb stroked the bare skin at the base of his right ring finger to calm himself but the lack of the golden ring there only made his rage grow.

He remembered it like it was just yesterday when he'd rotten it and for a moment he relaxed, lost in happier times. Frigga had given it to him at his coming of age ceremony. He had remembered Thor's own ceremony when Odin had gifted Thor his winged helmet and Mjolnir and told him that he looked forward seeing him on the throne, leading Asgard. Loki had received no such platitudes, false as they might have been. Instead he had been reminded of his duties as a second prince and a dispassionate gifting of daggers that were surpassed by the ones Loki had made for himself and nothing more.

Frigga had come to him later and gifted him a ring with an emerald stone, made out of a pendant of hers. She had laughed and told him that when he was a baby he had gnawed on that pendant to sooth his growing teeth and her love had soothed his chagrin.

It was all he had left of her and Doom had used that moment of weakness when they'd fought to take it from him, wrenched it from his hand. He had left his mark on him in retaliation, a scar on his face to add to the one Doom strove to hide with his mask but had to flee as Doom had called upon his Doombots to help.

Loki shook himself out of his thoughts and he realised his aimless feet had taken him to a planter outside the residence hall. He saw a pair of guys smoking cigarettes against a wall and made toward them, eager to get a head start on their venture in information gathering.

"Dude," He said in his most cordial voice, affecting it so it sounded a bit more Mid-Western. "Mind if I bum a smoke?"

"Sure." One of them, a boy with particularly shaggy blonde hair that fell into his eyes said and handed him one of his own. Loki sagged against the brick and took a deep inhale letting the smoke out in a ring that earned him their approval, and started the conversation like he expected it to.

"Nice." The other one said, this one with short cropped brown hair and dark eyes that slanted up. "Where'd you learn that from?"

"Oh needed to find a fun way to piss off the old man. Blowing one of these in his face worked just fine."

It wasn't a lie. He had done so many years ago but when he had transformed himself into a dragon from Muselpheim though and just finished melting half the goblets to the table by blowing fire through his throat. The smoke ring had been entirely accidental but Odin had been angry anyway.

"What's your name ?"

"Luke, Luke Houten."

"Cool, I'm Mike." The blonde said and pointed to the other one who raised his hand in salute. "And this is Grey."

"Haven't seen you around before." Grey noted.

"I just transferred along with my brother."

"Transferred? _Here_?" The two seemed incredulous and while Loki knew why, he thought it best to play along.

"Something wrong with NYU?" He asked all too innocent and Mike and Grey exchanged looks.

"He can't know." Mike said and Grey snorted, his jaw clenching hard.

"Yeah it's not like the police are doing anything either. Carrie's been trying to get the local media interested but they just keep focusing on the Avengers and those super soldiers."

"What's going on?"

"People are disappearing from the campus." Mike announced with a tone of importance.

"It's been happening all year long but no one's noticed. The police just say that 'they're just students, they get mixed up with shit all the time' and don't do jack about it."

"It's not like they had anything to investigate, they literally disappear, like poof. No evidence, nothing."

"But two students in two weeks, that's got the wind in their sails now. I heard the detective actually showed up to ask questions this time."

"So these students keep disappearing?"

"Most of them in the middle of the night but this last one was freaky, dude vanishes in the middle of the day while going to the library."

"Josh. " Grey nodded. "Good guy we grew up in the same neighbourhood. I even dated his sister back in high school."

"So this is happening here?" Loki faked a mixture of incredulity and panic. "Maybe I should have gone to Columbia."

"It's happening there too." Mike assured him and Loki was taken aback. He hadn't known that. "Yeah Columbia has two students missing as well just like Rockefeller. Happened a while back though but students here just keep on disappearing."

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"So where'd you transfer from?" Loki was saved form answering when a shrill shriek called out to him.

"Are you smoking?!" Jane said and Thor, following her, shook his head disapprovingly.

"And that would be the annoying older brother and his equally annoying girlfriend." Loki said to the two who grinned.

"You look nothing like each other."

"Yes well I'm lucky. I'm adopted. That poor bastard is actually related to the dick we call Daddy dearest." Loki rolled his eyes and turned to leave. "Catch you guys later."

He walked up to where the two were. "What?"

"What were you doing?"

"Oh you know, making acquaintances, thinking of ways to turn them into my minions, they usual," He rolled his eyes. "I was striking up a casual conversation in which I could bring up the disappearances."

"Did you find out anything?" Thor turned serious.

"It's not just restricted to this university, there are others who have gone missing that even I did not know of."

"We should go back to the tower, Tony can help."

The three shared nods and took off on foot pausing only to admire the fifty foot advertisement with Thor in his armoured glory for Aesir telecommunication services, a brand that Thor had been endorsing since his return to Earth, the tagline of 'Rule the Airwaves of the Nine Realms' making Thor blush.

"Really brother?" Loki teased. "Posing for the Midgardians' money?"

"I could not simply continue to leech off Jane and Erik for the rest of my life." Thor defended himself.

"Still, could have at least come up with a better slogan. And for all that they claim of having great reception even in storms, it never works."

Jane nodded along. "You should try my Verizon plan."

"Is it any good?"

"It can't be worse than the Aesir one." Jane quipped and they laughed at Thor's growing annoyance.

"Can we get a move on." Thor said gruffly. "Fury wants us to report."

"And you obey orders so well do you?" Loki said silkily but quickened his pace nevertheless and they reached the Tower without any further incident.

He strode into the room fast and hard shrugging out of his coat and throwing it onto a chair on his way. No one except Clint was in the living room and the archer simply stood there glaring at Loki.

"We have a problem." Loki said and pushed a few buttons on an intercom, letting a message go through to the labs where as he thought, Tony and Bruce were holed up, working on the freeze ray.

"Yeah, you." Clint said aggressively and Natasha who had come down from the gym when JARVIS notified her of Loki's presence like she'd asked him to, cuffed Clint on the head before settling down next to him on the couch, Steve coming down soon after her. Jane and Thor sat on a loveseat while Loki paced the length of the room easing up only when Tony and Bruce appeared.

"What's going on Reindeer Games?"

"It's not just NYU, some students reported people missing from Columbia University and Rockefeller College as well."

"Both in Manhattan." Bruce noted while Tony worked on pulling up the files.

"Are you sure it isn't a message for us?" Steve wondered.

"No." Loki and Natasha said simultaneously and turned to look at one another. Loki gestured for Natasha to answer with a smile and a bow.

"Doom knows who we are, where we live, its' all very public. If he wanted to send us a message it wouldn't be so subtle that he'd want us to miss it."

"Maybe it is, I mean if he's escalating clearly something's changed." Bruce hypothesised.

"Or nothing has." Loki said thoughtfully. "Before, he had trial runs of the Serum to test, something to keep his attention on but now that he's had so many successes he doesn't have that distraction any more, he's turning his full attention on flushing out whoever it is that he's looking for."

"You said Columbia and Rockefeller?" Tony asked Loki who nodded and with a few strokes of keys a hologram was projected of the missing students from each of those colleges.

"Four students gone missing, one from each college at around the same time, ten months ago and then nine months ago respectively. After that, nothing."

"He shifted his focus to NYU, he was almost certain that the person he's looking for was there." Loki muttered and Natasha nodded in concurrence.

"He expects this person to come forward and step up themselves, show themselves to him."

"Perhaps he expects to arouse his conscience, letting him know that all these disappearances are on his head."

"It could be a 'her'."

"It could. What I am almost certain of is that whoever this person is, they're a magic user."

"Why?"

"When he had me strapped down to the gurney and was about to inject me with the serum he said 'You'll have to pardon me for the abruptness of this. My usual test subject for such...experiments ran off a few years ago, I'm not sure when I'll come across this chance again.'" Loki recounted with a snarl. He did not like thinking of that day.

"You said you can sense magic." Natasha said. "Can you make a tracking program for it?"

"The magick of Midgard is not the same as the magick of other lands, it is weaker and I cannot recognise Seithr users simply upon sight. Most of them don't have enough potential for magic use for it to affect their aura."

"...What?"

Loki rolled his eyes. "Earth magic is too weak to register unless used actively."

"While on the subject of magic-" tony turned to Bruce who completed the sentence for him.

"We managed to replicate the material Doom used to store the serum in. It can only be used for storage though and only if the magic is in a stable form. Fury wanted us to see if we could use them as magic inhibitors-"

"Presumably for me." Loki interjected and Bruce twisted his face in unanimity.

"Yes but that won't work. If you tried to use magic they'd explode and you'd be free to do whatever you wanted to."

"But we can start studying the compound now." Tony said excitedly. "Now we can work on an anti-serum."

"I've already recognised some strains of what's in it. It seems to be a combination of the serum sued on the Captain and the one I managed to recreate along with a few strains of the Extremis virus."

"And magic to stabilise it. That's a dangerous cocktail. I assume you, good doctor, shall be working on the anti serum. It might even help with your state although why you'd ever want to reverse your abilities I can't imagine. And I'll ask around for more information."

"Did you find out anything else?" Natasha asked Loki.

"No, I was interrupted before I could find out anything else but they did say that the police are finally looking into it and that the detective on the case was making enquiries."

"They won't find anything, not if all the other kidnappings are anything to go by." Clint said.

"No but they'll do the legwork for us, set up a timeline of events and track his movements prior to the incident."

"Doom said years." Bruce said.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Doom said, well you say that he said his last test subject ran off a few years ago. It might be that this test subject was young. So he doesn't know exactly what it looks like now."

"And if it was young then that means he or she would fit in better in a college."

"Or it simply seems that this person is very good at hiding. Good enough that Doom doesn't think he can find her." Natasha noted and Loki looked to her confused.

"Why are you so convinced it's a girl?"

"Call it a hunch. And then there's the fact that he's been caught talking about how women are harder to control."

"I read that interview but it was right after Sue Storm ditched him right?" Tony scoffed and Natasha smiled her eyes hooded with secrets.

"Call it a good hunch."

* * *

On another side of the same town, a girl went over plans and maps and more. There were certain places marked on it, places used as portals, with little codes attached to them indicating the frequency of its use, the number of people it allowed to transport at one go and how long the portal created there would remain open. She knew it. She knew it _all_.

And she had known it was the Doombots picking off her fellow students one by one. She knew and didn't quite care. Well perhaps she did, just a little bit because it meant Doom was getting closer to finding her but it wasn't her responsibility and she shrugged it off. No, she would not feel guilty for the abduction of such innocents. If it wasn't them then it would have been others from some other place. She knew well that Doom liked watching that last shred of innocence leave the eyes of his 'experiments', he liked watching the hollow emptiness take its place in them when they first learnt how to kill and then continued to do so on his orders.

After all, once upon a time that had been her. 'Only', she supposed, 'there was never a time I was truly innocent was there?'

She wouldn't have gone looking for a fight but if she had to she would fight and she would win, easily at that. There are some reasons worth fighting for after all. But Doom had taken hers and destroyed it. For that, he would pay.

Later though. Right now she had to finish her Calculus assignments for Professor Schmidt's class.

* * *

**Leave a note!**


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N: I was supposed to finish editing this chapter ages ago but I got distracted by this beautiful piece of broccoli. It was so gorgeous and delicious and yummy. Does anyone else like broccoli? I love broccoli which is a problem for my mom who wants me to save some for my Dad who should be eating healthy instead of just eating it all by myself. I like broccoli as much as Homer likes doughnuts.**

**Thank you for the reviews Guest, Inuhime1, ImperfectIsPerfect and thephoenixandthedragon4ever.**

**Onwards!**

* * *

_Chapter 7_

Loki sat next to Thor in a surprisingly interesting class, Biology. He quite forgot what level it was but it was quite fascinating to hear of the human anatomy in human terms, most of his schooling had been done from the Aesir perspective. It had involved a lot of comparisons to their own physiology, comparisons in which the humans had done quite badly indeed.

"_See how the body burns to a crisp at such low temperatures? One of the many reason why the humans will never truly be a part of the Nine Realms, they can't exist as close to stars as we can."_

"_No magic to reinforce their life cycles and Idunn's apples cannot grow on the lands of Midgard, they only live about sixty years each. Not even a century. Their lives are a mere blink fo an eye. Truly sad. They'll probably die out before even managing to learn mining."_

Only they hadn't. Fascinating creatures really instead of dying out they like the Realms expected them to, they had outgrown their world and were now looking for alternates. Sure there was an utter lack of respect for their own world that had always rankled at Loki who had always been told that the world had a voice of its own and if you were careful and respectful enough you could hear it speak to you but by all rights his home world was Jotunheim.

Which he had tried to destroy using the Bifrost so in comparison, the humans were doing quite well really.

It had only made sense to apply for the pre-med course especially since he had every intention of working with Dr Banner and Stark on the antiserum. Already Banner had offered to help him out with any terms that might be odd, a strange offer coming from the man who had formerly put a smackdown on him. And the courses on organic chemistry were crucial seeing as how he had never learnt any of the terms humans used in the Alchemy taught on Asgard.

A snuffling snore from the bench next to him had him growling angrily as it disturbed him while he took his notes.

Why Thor had to join him in all these classes, he did not understand. It wasn't like he could help in any way whatsoever, the blond had no interest in any of this and he had no experience with magic so he would be useless in those brainstorming sessions that Loki, Tony and Banner frequently indulged in. He didn't even have any interest in the science of things. Thor wasn't an idiot by any means but his mind was wired for instantaneous strategies of war, not for detailed analysis.

All he did in all the lectures was sit up straight for the first five minutes, slump down in the next five and then before he knew it he was snoring away. Sure there were others like Thor, students how were uninterested in the material and preferred to spend their time playing games on their phones but those people sat in the back, not so close to the front like Thor did(because he couldn't just leave Loki alone here). He was lucky not to have been caught already and this was only because of Loki's efforts, making sure to poke Thor awake if the professor's eyes fell too close to them.

But the student knew and the students were annoyed. There were only so many times he could make apologetic faces to the others on Thor's behalf before he gave up and joined them in glaring at the idiot.

"He sounds like a pig eating." The girl behind Thor whispered eyeing his brother with distaste. It was a change to how Thor was usually received.

"You should see him when he's actually eating." Loki whispered back, voice dripping with disdain. "Pigs have better manners."

She looked at him with bright blue eyes and giggled, leaning in a bit so that her shirt gaped, something she did not bother correcting.

"Did you get everything Professor Singh said about pleural fluid? She talked too fast I didn't really get the last paragraph down properly."

"It was just a note on what the general appearance of pleural fluid indicates."

"Thanks can I borrow your no-"

The girl was interrupted by a sharp beeping form Thor's pocket. After a shared glance of annoyance she leaned back and Loki picked Thor's pocket deftly, opening it up to read the message. Sure Thor would be angry later on at the 'blatant invasion of privacy and immoral behaviour' but he needed Loki's notes so he could shove it, Loki decided, and opened up the message from Black Widow.

**Satellite picking up disturbance signals like the last time. Doom's super soldiers probably making a reappearance, get Loki and some to the tower for a debrief.**

Loki's eyes widened. This would be the first time he'd be fighting with the Avengers rather than against them and he would also be doing so in the form of a Jotunn or Na'vi as Tony called it, which Loki wouldn't admit, but he actually preferred still unable to quite digest the fact that he was a Frost giant unable to let go of a lifetime of being conditioned ot think of them as the enemy.

"Theo," He said mindful of the eyes watching them and the girl behind them listening in and shoved Thor as hard as he could without catching the attention of their professor. "Wake up."

Thor woke up and blinked slowly, still sleepy as possible. His jaw dropped a large yawn and he was just about to stretch when Loki caught him, so that he wouldn't make it too obvious that he was sleeping in class. "Whassat?"

"Dad's had a heart attack we need to go." Loki said urgently pressing the phone into Thor's hands, his own shaking with a mixture of trepidation and excitement.

He had been idle for too long, this unending vacation grate don him.

Thor read the message and his eyes widened. Before Loki could do or say anything he stood up and ran out the classroom, his actions catching the eyes of everyone there and Loki was left there to make excuses for his brother again.

"I'm sorry, Professor, we just received news that our father had a heart attack."

"And I expect you want to leave just like your brother?" Professor Singh quirked an annoyed eyebrow.

"If you wouldn't mind? Dad has only recently recovered from the last attack, he's been on bed rest ever since."

"Go." It seemed she had a heart after all and the girl who had been sitting behind Thor leaned forward while he shoved his books into his bag haphazardly.

"You give me the notes on pleural fluid and I'll give you the ones for the rest of the class."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"He joined his hands in gratitude before hightailing it out of the classroom.

* * *

**THE DAILY BUGLE**

_**New player in town? The Blues are back!**_

_**(Inset photo of fight)**_

By Colleen Morello

NEW YORK- The Avengers remain the greatest heroes in the world but even they need help and they found it in the form of the mysterious man in blue skin. Last night when the Super Soldiers led by Doombots attacked the city, the Avengers drove them back with more success this time as Iron Man led the attack while the rest convened around him, leading the soldiers towards him where he shot rays at their feet, freezing them in place. While the tactic worked for a while, the Super Soldiers were able to free themselves from the constricts quite quickly but the time lag allowed Thor and Stark to evacuate the few civilians still in danger.

It is at this crucial stage when the Avengers found themselves surrounded by the soldiers, that the mysterious man arrived.

"It was unbelievable, man!" said eyewitness Raymond Brooke of Kensington, "The Avengers were backed into a corner, one of those freaky super soldiers had crushed Iron Man's armour around the foot and he couldn't fly and they were all just smashing things left and right then out of nowhere this dude just appeared next to me and began walking up to them, easy as hell. He looked like one of those blue people in that movie (Reporter's Note: James Cameron's Avatar) you know? Then he just waved his hand and one of those super soldier things is an ice cube! He snaps his fingers and poof, gone just like that and takes that soldier with him."

The battle resumed with the Avengers coming out on top as the Doombots and Super soldiers tried to make sense of what had just happened.

While the identity of Doctor Doom rife with speculation, some sources hinting at a certain monarch of a small European country behind this, the super villain himself has made no appearance choosing to let his Doombots do the work for him instead. The reticent super villain has been lying low since the short stint at the Sochi Olympics where he was dealt quite a blow by our own Thor but by no means has he been inactive but the new superhero might be causing enough of a stir to bring him out of his exile, rumours are rife that in a certain landlocked country near Romania there has been quite a flurry of activity.

So far Pro-Mutant extremist Magneto has already issued a statement saying that the man in blue is not affiliated with them and reports from the X-Men also denied any association with the man the people have fondly taken to calling the Frigid Blue.

But the question remains, is the Frigid Blue friend or foe?

* * *

Loki trudged his way up the stairs, Thor at his side. It was a task for him to keep his eyes form lolling back into his head and stay open but he managed to do so nevertheless. More than one person had passed him by and worried about his state, something Thor explained by saying that he was low on sugar and a few offers of chocolates followed. Loki had managed to regain enough of his energy to send a smirk to Thor at the fact that he had gotten along with enough people to gain concern but just as quickly as he did so he had to pause and brace himself on the stairwell, wishing he had a bit less pride and could ask Thor for help. Instead he gritted his teeth and managed to make his way up to their floor, collapsing on the bed as soon as he did so.

It had been even more draining than he thought it would be. Freezing the super soldier had sapped him of nearly all of his strength. It had not gone as per plan and in a risky manoeuvre he had stopped time for fifteen minutes to allow himself the time he needed to freeze the soldier properly. Teleporting into the sub zero room prepared for them right after that had left him scraping at the bottom of the barrel of magic but despite it all they had to make their way back to the dorms on Thor's insistence. He refused to let the students remain undefended and so they cabbed it down and Loki forced himself to go beyond his limits to hide his exhaustion form Thor.

Stopping time was a skill he had learnt in his time with Thanos. The titan had a vast array of scrolls of power hidden away on the Barren Moon and when he had let Loki dig through it to find a way to use the Tesseract, Loki had found that little gem hidden away, learnt its contents and then destroyed it. But it was a forbidden magic, going against the laws that sorcerers were bound to. Manipulating time was something that had nasty consequences for the magician involved since it left their minds vulnerable to attack and bodies too tired to defend against any attack.

Thanos could have rooted around in his mind right now and Loki would be powerless to stop him but that ring's theft filled him with more anger than Thanos' tortures did and it was without hesitation he performed that spell.

Consequently he wasn't surprised when his dreams took a dark turn. But he was surprised anyway.

He knew well enough that this wasn't just a dream. No, this was a memory that he was viewing and not just any old memory but that of another another, a magic user but one who was untrained in the ways of seithr and had left their mind open.

On soundless feet the dream person moved through the halls of Doomstadt. Loki was impressed with the stealth the person had achieved, especially since they stood at only three feet off the ground, still a child. This was a childhood memory but it reminded Loki of the times he had spent spying in Alfheim.

Whoever this child was he was a very good sneak. He walked , ducking when a guard patrolling the passage made their way near, sticking to the shadows, finding niches in the walls that would have left another person trembling with claustrophobia and the sense of elation grew as he drew closer and closer to his destination , a room with a white door that was almost glowing. Just as he reached a few feet away a heavy hand clamped down on his shoulder, fingers digging into the young bones, threatening to twist.

With a cry the child disengaged himself and turned around to see the Doombot staring down at him with dead eyes.

"And what are you doing out of bed at such a late time?" It said in its mechanical voice, still not quite up to par with the Doombots Viktor was using currently. Loki estimated this to be about ten years ago form what he knew about them, this was one of the earliest prototypes of the Doombots.

"I was practising my last lesson. Stealth and Tracking." The young voice said, too young for him to make out a gender. He was confident and sure even as Loki felt the prickle of fear at the back of his head. An excellent liar as well, he realised.

The Doombot leaned in closer and in the metallic surface, a rudimentary mask, no more than a sheet of metal hammered out to look human Loki saw a reflection and for the first time saw exactly who Doom was looking for.

It was a girl. Now that he paid attention to it, he could feel the long curls brushing at his back. The Black Widow had been right after all and now he had a face albeit a much younger one than the one they would be looking for but with a sketch and some of Tony's technology they might have a better idea now that he had seen the face. In that moment he noted things down quickly, the eidetic memory working to memorise the features he saw.

Grey eyes big with youth, brown hair and oddly enough, no hint of fear.

"Practising your last lesson?"

"Yes, I thought what better way to practise then to try to actually sneak around the castle while it was being guarded. The obstacle course set up for us is too contr...contr...fake." So young that she struggled with her words. Loki felt her think and look for the right word and fail to do so. He felt her disappointment in herself and the rising fear as well especially as the Doombot's hand loosened itself.

"That may be so, but you broke the rules."

"I-I didn't mean t-"

"You broke the rules, therefore the punishment will follow."

Her heart began beating faster and faster, fear and anxiety rising until finally it could not be contained.

With a start Loki woke up hand on his heart that was beating unusually fast. He waited for its beat to calm down to a steady thump and when it did he reached out to his bedside table grasping for his phone, switching the lights on instinctually and Thor woke up, bleary eyed.

"Loki? What's going on?"

He hadn't gotten enough rest to pick up the phone for long and he failed to send the text he should have, fingers trembling too much and Loki let go of the phone and sat back against the headboard of the bed finally choosing to answer Thor.

"I know who we're looking for."

* * *

**Leave a note!**


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N: I am so so sorry for not updating! Seriously, I thought I'd have wi-fi where I was going but then I didn't have wi-fi and no network either.**

**Thank you guys so much for the reviews Guest, Inuhime1, ImperfectIsPerfect and thephoenixandthedragon4ever.**

* * *

_Chapter 8  
_

"It's no use." Natasha mused and Loki sat down next to her.

It was four days after his 'dream' and yet they hadn't found the girl. Jarvis was working overtime but so far the face recognition searches had turned up with a maximum of 65% of resemblance to the computer rendered adult sketch. Stark had even extended the boundaries of the searches running to go beyond America despite knowing for a fact that she was in New York and they had yet to hit upon an answer.

"No?"

"No. You said it yourself the girl is a very good sneak. If at such a young age she was being trained to hide in plain sight then by now she'll know a lot more tricks. If it was so easy as running a facial recognition program Doom would have done it years ago."

Loki couldn't help but agree. But with every piece of the puzzle falling into place they were getting closer to finding her which meant that they were getting closer to finding Doom's weakness.

He'd been labelled a hero by the newspapers already after his one stint but he wasn't a hero. No, the Avengers were the heroes _they_ actually cared about finding Doom and bringing him to justice for all his crimes and freeing those poor students.

Loki wanted him dead. The rest he didn't care about. He might try to save the students to piss off Doom but did he really care? No.

"Sir, we've got a match." Jarvis' announcement had everyone up and about, Tony excitedly pulling up results while Natasha and Loki actually sat up.

"Finally what took so lon- Jarvis this is not what I wanted."

A grainy picture of an article from a newspaper was on the screen. Inset was a photo of a woman and the girl from Loki's vision.

"I thought we were looking for the grown up version?" Tony said.

"I told Jarvis to look for the kid too." Natasha interjected with a shrug and a smug smile.

"It appears that this child does not exist in any system in the world but there is a photo of her in an article dated 23rd July 1997."

"Nat, it's in Russian mind telling us what it says?"

"A woman was found drowned in her bathtub. Authorities suspect suicide and she's named as the mother of two but there's no mention of the children's names in this. She apparently left a note saying that the children were well taken care of."

"We've got nothing." Clint drooped.

"Mother of two?" Loki thought it over. For some reason that detail was sticking out to him.

"Yes."

"Jarvis could you blow up the picture?"

At the right hand corner he could just make out a face, one peeping into the bottom of the frame but it seemed to be that of a boy with the same dark hair as the mother and the girl.

"What are you thinking?"

"Mother of two, mother of two." Loki paced the room, thinking. "All the students who've disappeared, pull up their profiles."

What's going on?

"Grey mentioned dating Josh's sister in high school. I remember in one of the statements taken before, one of them, James, I believe, was supposed to be en route to his sister's engagement party when he was taken. I'd go so far as to wager that all the students who've been taken have siblings."

Tony clicked away at the keyboard and soon holographic projections of the victims flashed by on the screen along with that of their apparent sisters.

"That's all of them."

"What are the chances that all these victims, seemingly chosen at random, had sisters?"

"It's a bit of a stretch." Bruce tempered their enthusiasm but Natasha supported Loki's theory.

"Not when we have an approximate twenty students missing with nothing connecting them but a sister."

"That just doesn't make any sense." Tony frowned.

Loki laughed. Megalomaniancs didn't have to make sense and Tony for all that he liked to think himself one, wasn't power hungry. _He_ understood though. "We don't have the whole picture we don't know how deep these connections go. It could be pointless or it could be symbolic. Taking away whatever family she had over and over again."

Natasha nodded. "It's a start. I'll edit Theo and Luke's identities to add in a sister."

"A random sister?"

"Make mention of her in class, her records will be sealed because of a stint in juvie, I'll figure something out just advertise that you have a sister."

Loki was already making plans and thought back to his first day of college. "I think I have the perfect way."

* * *

He knocked on the door of Jane's dorm.

"Luke?" The girl said and Loki realised he had forgotten her name completely. The thoughts must have shown on his face because she smiled amusedly as if she was quite used to it. "Rachel Brown."

"Ah yes, Rachel. Sorry about that."

"It's fine, did you want Jane?"

"No actually I was looking for you."

"Oh?"

"You had said something about getting guest badges for family?"

"Yes, you have to file a form for it though and a lot of people would rather just sign them in at the desk."

"I think the guest badge sounds like less of a hassle actually."

"Really? It's a surprising amount of paperwork, and you need a lot of notarised documents to be attached as well. We've had issues with people misusing the guest badge privileges, it's gotten more strict since."

"That won't be an issue and I'm afraid our sister would bite our heads off if she needed to be signed in every time she came to visit."

"Oh you have a sister?"

It was bloody convenient for him that Jenny, one of the biggest gossips on campus was passing by them when Rachel said it and Loki watched her raise her eyebrows in surprise and interest, knowing full well that everybody would know of the fact that they had a sister. His plan was going perfectly and he bit his lip in order to stop his cheer.

"Yes, a few years younger. Doesn't make her any less scary though. So would you mind helping us out with the forms?"

"Yeah sure, I have a copy of the form in my room right now if you'd like to go over it?"

"That would be great."

She shuffled a few papers around, looking for the forms in question and Loki took the time to look at the room. Jane's part in it was pretty obvious, there were models of telescopes, star charts strewed around and her books all relating to astrophysics were kept neatly on the shelves. The books themselves had obviously been used often, the spines had been taped over plenty of times to keep them together, there were parts of the books marked out with post its and he was willing to bet she'd made corrections to them as well. The closet hung open just a bit so that the edges of the brown jacket that Jane was so fond of, hung out the gap.

The other side of the room was all but bare, a calendar with pictures of the landscapes the only thing hanging on the wall, shelves holding nothing but the prescribed reading for courses, even the bed was made although not as neat as it could be and her closet was firmly closed, not the slightest bit of clutter. If Loki had to guess he would say that Rachel had been living there for less time than Jane but he supposed it had less to do with time and more with personality, something that Rachel lacked and Jane had in spades. Oh he wasn't fond of her by any means but he certainly _noticed_ the woman his brother was so fond of, she certainly didn't fade into the background what with all the screeching.

"That's a pretty picture." He pointed to the calendar.

"It's Montana, the Last Best Place. It's supposed to be one of those advertising things but it works right?"

"It seems unspoilt."

"That's what I think too. One day I'm going to go there." There was a wistfulness in her voice that surprised him. He didn't think she had it in her to feel anything like that. He didn't expect her to feel anything at all except practicality.

"Not now?"

"Too many student loans to pay off. But one day." She sounded determined but cleared her throat just as quickly. "Umm, Luke are you sure it's the best thing to get your sister a guest badge?"

"Why not?"

"Well with the disappearances. They're even thinking of enforcing a curfew you know."

"I hope not." He made a face although he quite approved of the idea. The Doombots stole students from outside the living areas so as to avoid too much suspicion, it would make sense to inflict a curfew. Then again they were getting bolder with the kidnapping so perhaps it wouldn't work after all. "So the forms?"

"The first page is pretty standard you must have filled this information out when you applied for the transfer..."

It was a long time before Loki went back to his room, the paperwork involved was indeed just as Rachel mentioned, long and arduous but it was worth it when Justin from down the hall slung his arm around Loki's shoulders in a friendly way.

"So what's this I hear about your sister? Is she hot?"

Loki couldn't help the grin taking over his face. The plan had gone perfectly.

* * *

"Yo Luke!" A young student yelled and Loki shot Thor a smirk and went to sit there. There was only one seat left empty in that part of the classroom and it was one that had been saved for Loki.

Loki had _friends_.

Thor watched as Loki sat on the opposite side of the lecture hall. They'd been late in coming and only a handful of seats remained empty, none of them close to where 'Luke' was and Thor frowned as he sat on the one seat that allowed him to have Loki in his peripheral view.

"You're Luke's brother right?" A girl to his right asked, her jaws working steadily on the chewing gum that Midgardians were so fond of. "Terry?"

"Theodore." Thor corrected feeling a bit insulted.

It was strange for him to be referred to as Loki/Luke's brother. Not that he wasn't of course even if he and Loki weren't bound in blood she were brothers by bond.

Well, most of the time.

Still there hadn't been many times when he had been referred to as Loki's brother instead of Loki being referred to as Thor's brother. He had never only been known as someone Loki knew except for one time in Vanaheim when they had been meeting his mother's family. The noble Vanir had taken better to Loki's silvertongue and spells (empty talk and tricks as once he had called them much to his shame) and Thor had been relegated to the backdrop and having found it dull Thor had escaped and gone back to his friends and his quests.

It was also around the same time that he had tried to go to Helheim and take control of the Army of the Dead. Without Loki there to have his back though he had failed. Quite badly.

(But really, how did the young Midgardian confuse Theodore with _Terry_?!)

"Luke is adopted right?" The girl to her right asked. She watched him carefully but not with the same lust filled look that he was used to getting, especially in his Thor avatar. No, the interest in her eyes was different and her sharp gaze made him a bit uncomfortable.

"Yes but he is brother by bond."

"You say that a lot. Overcompensation perhaps?" She mused and Thor spluttered.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Just saying you do keep on looking at Luke. A lot. I've seen you with your girlfriend, you don't pay the same kind of attention to her." Thor narrowed his eyes. The emphasis the girl had put on the word 'girlfriend' seemed like when Loki was in one of his moods and being a sarcastic little shit.

"He's a loose cannon and I want to make sure he doesn't try something."

"I'm in your Chemistry lectures, _you're_ the one who gets busted for sleeping in class." She said sceptically.

"It's alright you know, I mean if you and Luke are one of _those_ kind of brothers." The other girl said, leaning in conspiratorially.

"What other kind of brothers?"

"You know, like slashy brothers."

"Slashy? Are you referring to crossing swords?" He said confused. He didn't understand Midgardians really, why would they assume he and Loki were the type to fight and injure one another? They were but Thor hadn't used a sword since he'd been given Mjolnir and Loki was more fond of dagger. Besides hadn't Stark assured him that broadswords were frowned upon in polite society?

"Riiight. Crossing swords." She winked.

"I get the feeling we're not talking about the same thing." He continued, confused and the other girl rolled her eyes.

"She means it's okay with us if you've got a hard on for Luke we'll keep your boner a secret."

Thor understood what they meant now. Darcy had managed to teach him enough of Midgardian terms to understand what that meant (though he didn't understand how it was related to wounds and slashes) and was feeling rather outraged.

"I would never-"

"Save it dude, there's so much subtext it's practically a novel."

"Loki is my brother and-"

"Loki?" Thor's eyes widened as he took in his slip.

"I-"

"I can't believe you'd nickname your brother after the guy who tried to take over the world." Their looks of interest had faded into disgust.

"That's not cool."

"Umm I didn't mean...it's a childhood nickname."

"Oh and I'm guessing you were Thor and he was Loki?" She scoffed.

"Weeell."

"That is so rude. I mean it's bad enough when it was the guy who tried to take over the world but you've been teasing him about being the poor guy form the myths?"

"So uncool."

"It was just a joke." He offered weakly.

"Just a joke? Have you even read the stories, Loki's the most tragic anti-hero of all times." Wait, what?, "He gets raped by a giant horse and gives birth to an eight legged horse-" Actually that was a mishap trying to fix Sleipnir's broken leg after they'd taken him out for a ride without their Father's permission, "his mouth gets sewn shut while Thor held him down," That was...yeah that was a bad time, "his children get exiled," Loki didn't have children, he had creations that he made against the rules, of course they had to be taken away but Thor did miss Hela though, she'd been fun, "and then he's tied to rocks with the entrails of his son while a serpent's venom drips on his face!" What twisted minds the Midgardians had to come up with such lies.

OF course he couldn't exactly tell them how wrong the myths were without blowing his cover so he stayed silent as they glared at him.

"Umm...I'm sorry?"

Needless to say when the lecture ended Thor was all but running out the door. He knew Loki was a part of a study group (that he had not been invited to be a part of) and he thought he could catch up with Jane instead and made his way to her door and knocked expectantly.

"Jane I am," Thor looked around at the empty room where Jane was supposed to be only wasn't and frowned, "-here?"

Before he could think about it though a throat cleared itself and he whirled to see Cassidy, also known as the graduate assistant for the Residence Hall Director (that the boys in the room next to him were oddly scared of) standing there with a sharp smile.

"You're looking for Jane?"

"Ah yes, Jane Fos- I mean Jane and I had plans to go out to lunch." He said and ran a hand through his hair. Thor had never been as good at lying as his brother.

Although they did really have lunch plans. It was just that those lunch plans included regrouping at the Avengers tower so that Tony could test the freeze ray on Thor while Jane worked with Doctor Banner on the anti-serum.

"She said she needed to talk to Professor Smith about her psychology grades." Cassidy offered. "You can catch her at the Meyer Hall."

"Thank you La-," He caught himself before he could slip up further. This was not his day, first he called Luke Loki now he was about to address someone as a lady. The last time he did that the woman at the information desk had though he was hitting on her. "Thank you Cassidy."

"I've told you before Terry, it's Cass." She laughed and went off.

"It's Theodore actually." He said to the empty space she'd left behind her before leaving the dorm to go get Jane.

No, not his day.

But then a blow fell to the back of his head as he took the shortcut between buildings. Not enough to cause him any harm but a Midgardian would have dropped unconscious from that hit and he decided to go along with it, falling to the ground unceremoniously. He was moved and shifted, through barely open eyes he saw that he was slung over the back of a Doombot and tried to smother his smile as they stepped through a portal and he felt the brushes of magic in his toes.

The plan had worked and he was being kidnapped by the Doombots to be turned into a super soldier.

The day had gotten significantly better.

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	10. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hellooo, how fareth thou? So we finally get to meet the person that Doom's been looking for and she's someone who's been introduced in earlier chapters, albeit only peripherally. I wonder if any of you have guessed who she might me, to me it is fairly obvious but then I did write her so maybe it's just obvious to me? There is a miniscule fight scene in here which is pretty bad in my opinion and I would love for suggestions on how to improve it. This chapter is to be the bridge for the transition out of the college arc.  
**

**Anywho, thank you for the reviews Inuhime1, ImperfectIsPerfect and SailingFXforGold. You guys are the nicest!**

* * *

_Chapter 9_

Jane stomped her way to the dorm, every foot landing with such force and anger it jarred and hurt her heel but she continued anyway. The pain distracted her from her anger.

"Someone's in a bad mood." Loki sang as he fell into step with her. Her annoyance skyrocketed when she saw that he was practically dancing with glee. Supervillains who had tried to take over the world should not be allowed to be happy, she decided. Even if they'd help save her life.

"What do you want?" She growled. Well attempted to growl. By the amused smile he threw her way she knew it had come off more like a disgruntled kitten than the roar of a lion she was going for.

She'd met Thor's friends on various occasions in the last year or so. They'd come down to Midgard to meet their friend, sometimes they'd even come to help Thor and the Avengers, a particularly memorable occasions was when Amora, an enchantress had come down to Earth to steal Thor. Each and every time they had come she had been left feeling a little bit low on self esteem because among Thor's friends was one Sif who was like Xena, only hotter. She was pretty, she could fight and she could fight while still looking pretty. And then there was the fact that Thor's daddy dearest actually approved of Sif, had made plenty of comments on how Thor should leave the 'Little Midgardian and seek the treasure that was right in front of him'.

Right now she was feeling jealous of Sif for another reason. The woman was intimidating and Jane really, really wanted to intimidate people right now.

"Just wondering what's got your panties in a bunch."

Supervillains who had tried to take over the world should also not be allowed to say things like 'panties in a bunch'. That was just plain wrong.

Still she was taking out her anger on him unnecessarily and she knew it.

"Stupid Smith with his stupid face making stupid judgements." She complained.

"What did he do?"

Jane was reluctant to share this with him but she was angry and annoyed and seriously, how the hell could Smith give her a 'C' on her paper!

"Smith wouldn't reconsider my grade. I'm stuck with the 'C'. I've never gotten a 'C' in my entire life!"

"It's just a psychology paper, I thought you hated the, what was it you called them? Oh yes 'soft sciences'?"

"Yeah well, it's still an insult."

"Relax Smith doesn't ever give good grades. He gives 'B's to people at the most. A 'C' isn't that bad."

"He gave _you_ an A!" Jane said, exasperated. "And he said your paper was the best paper he had ever read in his whole career as a college professor!"

She could have sworn Smith had tears in his eyes when he'd said that.

"So? I'm trained to be a spy of course I'm great at psychology." He scoffed.

Supervillains who had tried to take over the world should not be allowed to ace papers!

Soemhow during the conversation they'd reached their floor and gone their separate ways, Loki with a stupid grin while she continued stomping. It took her a good while to calm herself down but she managed. It didn't stop her from pulling the books out of her bag roughly though and even Rachel was starting to notice her bad mood.

"You all right?" She asked.

"Fine just...Smith won't reconsider my grade."

"What did you write the paper on?"

"The Oedipus complex. Couldn't really think of anything else."

"Oh well that explains it."

"It does? How?"

Rachel leaned in conspiratorially. "Well Karen says she saw Smith get a visitor once. A hot blonde with quite a rack. She thought it might have been his girlfriend but turns out it was his mother."

"Oh? Ohhh!" Jane saw where she was going with that.

"Yeah and no one ever seems to get a good grade if they write about the Oedipus complex, just ask Srinivas. He got chewed out for his paper and we both know that he isn't stupid by any means. It's the curse of the Oedipus complex."

"Seriously?"

"That's what they say."

In a much better mood Jane opened her astrophysics assignment. Before she could get stuck into it though, a knock on the door came and Loki stood on the other side.

"Is Theo here?" He asked.

"No, why?"

"He isn't in our room."

"So?"

"So he never leaves me alone, remember. And I called Tony he's not there either. I tried calling him but he's not picking up the phone."

"Oh. Well I'm sure he'll be fine I mean, what are the chances that he's been...taken?"

To her surprise it was a paling Rachel that answered.

"High actually. Quite high. I have to go, I'll talk to college security and ask around at information of any students have seen him. I'd suggest you two file a report with the Police, ask to be directed to Detective Macintosh of the 43rd Precinct, she's the one investigating Josh's disappearance."

She rushed out but Loki simply came into the room sauntering in easily and sat down on one of the chairs grabbing a bottle of water Jane had been keeping for herself.

"So what do we do?"

"Nothing. We wait for Thor to contact me."

"You just said he wasn't answering his calls."

"Yes well we set up a temporary telepathic connection between us in case either one got taken. That was the plan after all."

"But, shouldn't we be tracking him or something?"

Loki looked at her like she was an idiot. Combined with her low grades and the fact that her boyfriend had just been kidnapped, it was making her homicidal.

"Why would we do that? We know where he'll be taken, to Doomstadt. The point was to infiltrate the castle secretly and see if Doom has an antiserum on hand."

"But it's Thor."

Jane loved Thor, as odd as it was to say that about a thousands of years old God of Thunder whom she had run over twice and slapped twice and there was the time she'd accidentally given him food poisoning the time she tried to cook something for their first year anniversary but besides all that was the fact that while she loved him, Thor was not subtle. He was not quiet. He was not anything that was conducive to stealthily creeping around a heavily guarded castle.

Loki sighed. "Yeah I know. I was banking on me being the one who was caught but it was Thor. He can't be furtive and quiet worth shit."

"So it's kind of pointless."

"Not pointless. If he sends us a distress signal we have a reason to storm the castle and engage Doom in a fight. That's always fun. Until then, we wait. I have to go to the Tower and tell Fury of this development. "

"I'm coming with you." Jane said and gathered her things, picking her favourite brown jacket out of her closet and tugging it close. They made it all the way to the subway station when he spoke again

"Oh and by the way, you have ink on your face."

Supervillains that had tried to take over the world should not be allowed to mess with poor little astrophysicists.

* * *

Thor 'woke up' to a room that looked quite like the med bay in the Avengers tower. He was alone and strapped to a bed with metallic clamps. He could have snapped out of them easily but ti would have ruined the whole 'discreet' bit of his job. A sudden rush of activity outside the room caught him while he was vetting the room and he dropped his head back down again, pretending to be knocked out.

Footsteps accompanied by a very faint whirring sound alerted him to the fact that a Doombot had entered. More than one in all probability. If his senses were right there were three, one near his foot, attaching a tag to his toe, another looming over his head and a third one near the door watching.

"This one is weak. He is not awake yet." The one near the door said.

"I hit him harder than the others, he is a big one." A voice came from near his head, They were all the same, the voices. But then, he supposed, not everyone had the creativity to give their robots different voices and personality like Tony did. Loki even created a person from his pinkie finger and ended up with Hela who at her best _and_ worst was always a truly wonderful, independent character, albeit a literal freak of nature that was not supposed to exist.

"He needs to wake soon, Sir wants to see the subject being turned."

The sound of distant sirens took their attention away from him. Thor clenched his jaw to keep from shouting at the interference. He had only just been taken, there had not been enough time to gain any information yet.

"That's coming from the east side." One of them said.

"The sensors there are faulty." The Doombot at his head continued to prod at his neck, checking for the pulse. Thor had learnt early on how to fool a captor into thinking him unconscious and kept a control on his pulse keeping it low, sluggish.

"We have orders." The one at the door said. It was clear that he was the one in charge when the rest followed his lead and went out after him to check on the east side but Thor kept his eyes shut just in case they came back again.

His ears prickled at the slight sound of the door opening again. This time there were no accompanying footsteps, no whirring sound. There was not even a breath and yet Thor could tell there was someone there and that whoever this person was, they had magic.

IT might have been Doom, the real one for all he knew and so he kept quiet and still.

The pressure on his chest, torso and legs lifted. It hadn't been much to begin with but it was gone, if he wanted to he could have stood. Instead he waited.

Oddly enough, though he couldn't hear the person he could smell them. He caught the barest whiff of talcum powder, one that would have been missed by someone who was not of Asgardian descent, certainly lost to the humans.

A small hand laid itself upon his neck.

"Shit, too slow." A voice said and his eyes flew open. He knew that voice.

"You're awake?!" Rachel whispered before looking around carefully. "Come on let's get you out of here, can you stand?"

"Yes, yes I, but _you_?! How did you find-_You_?!" He was struck.

"No time for questions now, we need to go before they find us."

Thor stumbled to a stand, mind still reeling.

Rachel? But she was so normal and uninteresting and barely there, how could she possibly? And how had the facial recognition system not catch her, how did they not recognise that she was the one Doom was looking for?

"Come on, follow me, I know a way out." She said and he did so. They made it through a good few hallways, stopping on occasion for seemingly no reason and hiding but then the sound of rushing steps would be heard and Thor realised that she knew the workings of this castle well, very well.

What was her relation to Doom? Why did he want her?

How had they never realised it was her?

"Just a few more feet, hang in there." She said softly. "I'll get you out."

"_Will you now, darling one?" _

They turned as one to find themselves staring at one Doctor Doom. Unlike the tense military way in which the Doombots carried themselves, he leaned against the wall casually, hands crossed with ease. His gaze stayed focused on her and Thor was once again forgotten, relegated to the background.

"Doom." She said conversationally, relaxing herself and walking towards him putting herself between him and Thor.

She still thought he needed to be protected, Thor realised and balked.

He was to keep his identity a secret but he couldn't very well allow the young lady who had come to rescue him be taken captive instead. He was Thor, protector of Midgard, no he could not allow it to come to that and firmly moved ahead and pushed her behind him.

"_Tch tch tch, you find yourself a new protector?"_

"Protector, protectee, it's all the same to you isn't it." She said playfully but there was a saccharine edge to her voice that was entirely fake. "By the way, _love_ the new mask. Remind me to congratulate whoever it was that left you with that gash on your cheek."

How she knew Doom was hiding another scar under his mask Thor did not know but from Doom's snarl it was obvious that she was right.

Sounds of a struggle sounded and Thro turned to find that Doombots had crept up on them while they were talking and she was valiantly fighting them off. She knew just where to hit, just where to stab to take them down and one by one their numbers reduced. He joined the fray taking them out along with her, following her lead and finding the seams in their metal facades and digging into them. She moved easily and fast, stabbing a bot in the joint with a plastic knife and twisting hard before using the momentum of it falling to throw it onto another. The numbers reduced soon, annoying Doctor Doom and with a growl he pulled away from the wall stalking closer to her but was stopped when Thor laid his hand across his chest the other outstretched to keep him form Rachel.

"_You think you can stop me? Puny little boy!"_ Doom backhanded him but Thor did not budge, not in the slightest and finally Dooms turned his attention to him. _"Not so puny then?"_

"No." Thor stretched out his hand and Mjolnir came flying through the air settling herself firmly in his hand. "Not puny and not a boy."

"Son of a bitch." Rachel said behind him but before she could say anything else he wrapped his hand around her waist.

"Hold on to me tight."

* * *

Loki expected to hear something from Thor, he expected a distress call,, a voice speaking in his head, something. But instead, four hours into his disappearance, Mjolnir flew out of the armoury and zoomed past them breaking through the bulletproof glass in Stark's tower and then another minute or so later Thor landed on the helipad outside, their floor supervisor held in his arms.

"Rachel?" Loki was unsure of what was going on. It was not a natural state for him to be in.

"Thor." She said sharply, disengaging herself from his brother quickly. "I risked my life and freedom to rescue Thor." She turned to him. "And if he's Thor then you must be Loki. Great. Juuuust great."

"Thor what did you do?"

Why had his brother gone to get their floor supervisor before coming to Avengers Tower? And why was she looking at him with such a carefully blank look on her face?

"I believe I have found the one who Doom was looking for." Thor said gravely and swept his arm to indicate Rachel who didn't move a muscle.

"What the hell?!" Jane said from behind him, summarising what they were all feeling perfectly.

What the hell, indeed.

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